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’”→
Idioms featuring the word ‘horse’ or ‘horses’ are common in English, and this is no great surprise. Humans have always had a close relationship with this beautiful animal. For centuries, horses were our main means of transport. We also used them in farming, war, and industry. More recently, of course, we’ve ridden horses, both for leisure and in the sport of horse racing. Today, I’m looking at some of the most frequent and useful horse idioms. Continue reading “Wild horses and gift horses (Idioms with the word ‘horse’)”→
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the most visited painting in the world, is famous for its subject’s strange smile. That smile is often described as enigmatic, meaning that it is rather mysterious and it is impossible to guess what she is thinking. Today’s post looks at some other words and phrases to do with people hiding or showing their emotions. Continue reading “Poker faced or heart on your sleeve? Showing or hiding emotions.”→
My first post on death and dying looked at softer, less direct ways of talking about this subject, for example saying that we ‘lose’ a person or that a person ‘passes away’ rather than saying they ‘die’. Today, I’m looking at idioms and phrases generally in this area, some of which are also gently euphemistic. Continue reading “Talking about death (Part 2)”→
Today’s post is the second of a pair focusing on nautical idioms, that is, idioms relating to sailing and the ocean. Part 1 covered idioms with the words ‘boat’, ’ship’ or ‘water’. Today, I’m looking at idioms containing a range of other nautical words. Where an item of vocabulary or the nautical origin of a phrase is not clear, I have given a brief explanation. Continue reading “All hands on deck! (Nautical Idioms, Part 2)”→
My last post looked at phrases containing the word ‘end’ in the sense of the part that is furthest from the centre of something. Today’s post looks at phrases containing the word ‘end’ in its other main sense: the final part of something such as an activity or a period of time.
If something is at an end, it is finished and if it comes to an end, it finishes. On the other hand, if there is no end to something, it will never finish:
Eventually the rescuers arrived and her ordeal was at an end.
That period of my life was about to come to an end.
There seems to be no end to the conflict.
In the end, means finally, for instance at the end of a series of events or after a long discussion. We sometimes describe the point where something starts to get worse until it finishes or fails completely as the beginning of the end:
I made several attempts to call her, but in the end I went to her house.
It was the beginning of the end for our band when the drummer left.
If you do something to/until the bitter end, you continue until it is finished or completed, usually facing great problems or knowing that the result will be bad:
Their opponents had by far the better team, but they fought to the bitter end.
If you say that something is not the end of the world, you mean that it isn’t the worst thing that could happen. We sometimes use this phrase to imply that someone is making too much fuss about something. If someone comes to/meets a sticky end, they die in an unpleasant way. This phrase is slightly humorous, and shouldn’t be used in serious situations:
I know you’re upset about missing the show, but it’s not the end of the world.
The character comes to a sticky end when his car blows up.
I’ll finish with a very common phrase. When people are discussing a situation, they often finish with the phrase at the end of the day, followed by what they consider to be the most important fact about it:
You can complain about the driving test as much as you like, but at the end of the day, if you want to drive, you have to do it.
As you can see from this and my previous post, there are an incredible number of English phrases with the word ‘end’. Is this the same in your language?
As the UK is an island nation, it’s perhaps not surprising that there are a great many idioms in English that relate to the ocean and sailing. Some of these nautical idioms are not known or used by many people and others contain obscure items of vocabulary. However, a surprising number are fairly common in contemporary English. This post (and my next one) will cover the most frequent of these idioms. Continue reading “Rocking the boat (Nautical Idioms, Part 1)”→
Today’s post is the first of a pair looking at some of the very many phrases that contain the word ‘end’. The noun end has two main meanings. The first is the part of something that is furthest away from the centre. Today’s post looks at phrases where ‘end’ relates to this meaning. Continue reading “Jumping in at the deep end: phrases with ‘end’”→
