Listen to the author reading this blog post.
My last post (on fruit idioms) featured the rather sweet expression the apple of someone’s eye. This made me think of other useful idioms and phrases that include the noun ‘eye’. It turns out there are a great many, so this post will be in two parts.
Continue reading “For your eyes only! (Idioms with ‘eye’, Part 1)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
You may have heard the cheery saying When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! It means, when something bad happens to you, take a positive attitude and use it to your advantage. (After all, lemons on their own are sour and unpleasant, but add sugar and water and you have a delicious drink!) This idiom (heard on a podcast this morning) reminded me of all the nice fruit idioms we have in the English language. I thought I’d share the best of them with you.
Continue reading “When life gives you lemons… (Fruit idioms)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
It’s the second week of February and here in Cambridge, the weather feels arctic! As I type this, my fingers are as cold as ice. Time to get that electric heater from the spare room! In a way though, it’s appropriate, as today’s post is about how we describe the effect that the weather has on us.
Continue reading “Chilled to the bone or roasting? (The effect that the weather has on us)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
Regular visitors to the Cambridge Dictionary blog will be familiar with my newspaper idioms posts in which I present idioms and phrases from a range of national newspapers published on the same day. This post is the latest in this series.
Continue reading “Getting hitched and biting your tongue (Newspaper idioms)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
‘Nothing succeeds like excess’, said Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish writer, presumably having a bit of fun with the old proverb, ‘Nothing succeeds like success.’ I mention this because today’s post is all about excess – that is, an amount or level of something that is too much.
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
As I research the language for these posts, I’m often surprised by the number of words and phrases in English for the same basic concept. This week’s subject – the language of limiting things – is no exception.
Continue reading “Curbing and capping (The language of limiting things)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
One of several things we do on this blog is look at the various ways we say the same – or a similar – thing. As the saying goes, variety is the spice of life! Today’s post will provide you with a range of ways to say ‘gradually’, including phrases and single words.
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
Today’s post deals with the language around a feeling that we all experience from time to time, embarrassment – that is, the feeling of being ashamed or shy in the company of others.
Continue reading “Cringeworthy and toe-curling (The language of embarrassment)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
This week’s post looks at the language that we use to talk about risk – that is, the possibility of something bad happening. I look at phrases that include the word ‘risk’ itself and then consider a range of useful idioms on this theme.
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
Today’s post is the latest in my ‘Idioms and phrases in newspapers’ series, which provides you with a regular supply of common, contemporary English idioms and expressions. The phrases in this post are taken from a range of national newspapers published on the same day.