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by Liz Walter
The simple verb hit forms part of a surprisingly large number of idioms with very varied meanings. Today’s post looks at some of the most useful of these. Continue reading “Hitting the nail on the head: idioms with ‘hit’”
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by Liz Walter
Back in 2017, my colleague Kate Woodford wrote a couple of posts on ‘binomials’, which are pairs of words joined with ‘and’ or ‘or’, that are used together in a fixed order. Today I’m taking this one step further by looking at ‘trinomials’ or groups of three words always used in the same order. Continue reading “Tall, dark, and handsome: using trinomials”
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by Liz Walter
We often find ourselves in situations where we don’t believe something we are being told. This post looks at some of the phrases we can use when this happens, depending on factors such as how strongly we feel about it, or whether we think someone intended to lie or not. Continue reading “It’s a pack of lies!: things we say when we don’t believe someone”
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by Liz Walter
Over the years, I have written several posts about emotions, such as this one on describing emotion with metaphors of height and this one on idioms and phrasal verbs to express happiness. Today’s post looks at something a little different: the nouns we use when we want to talk about the way we experience emotions. Continue reading “Waves, twinges and bursts: words we use to describe emotions”
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by Liz Walter
Back in the 1990s, a social networking site called Friends Reunited enabled people to find old friends and communicate with them again. It was immensely popular but eventually closed down, unable to compete with platforms such as Facebook. I was reminded of it as I recently waited to meet someone I hadn’t seen for a long time myself, and I started to consider the language we use in these situations. Continue reading “Reuniting and reminiscing: talking about meeting old friends”
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by Liz Walter
In my last post, I wrote about metaphorical uses of the word ‘dirty’ and today I’m going to look at the word ‘clean’. It’s an interesting fact that we tend to have more words and phrases for bad or unpleasant things than good or pleasant ones. However, there are still several metaphorical uses of clean that are well worth learning. Continue reading “Keeping your nose clean: the metaphorical use of ‘clean’”
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by Liz Walter
I recently watched a fascinating and shocking TV documentary called ‘Dirty Business’. The subject was the terrible state of the UK’s rivers and seas, and the title has a double meaning. On the one hand, it refers to literal dirt in the water and on the other to apparently unethical practices from both water companies and the UK Environment Agency which should be protecting our water quality. In this post I take a closer look at the way ‘dirty’ is used metaphorically and the words and phrases we often use with it. Continue reading “It’s a dirty business: the metaphorical use of ‘dirty’”
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by Liz Walter
Today’s post concentrates on a set of compound adjectives (adjectives made from two words) that start with the name of a body part. Unlike compound adjectives where the body part is second (blue-eyed, long-haired, etc.), they tend to be quite idiomatic and in many cases extremely emphatic. Continue reading “Mouth-watering or jaw-dropping: adjectives formed with body parts”
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by Liz Walter
My last two posts have looked at figurative and idiomatic uses of the verb ‘throw’. My final post on this remarkably useful verb will focus on some of the phrasal verbs formed with it. Continue reading “Throw away and throw in: phrasal verbs with ‘throw’”
by Liz Walter
My last post looked at the way the verb ‘throw’ can be extended into several figurative uses. Today, we go a step further and look at some classic idioms that contain this word. Continue reading “Throwing your weight around: idioms with ‘throw’”