Listen to the author reading this blog post.
Do you know someone who is ‘good in a crisis’ – someone who stays admirably calm in difficult circumstances when the people around them are too stressed to make good decisions? Perhaps you are good in a crisis. This week, I’m looking at all the words and phrases we use to talk about such people.
Continue reading “Calm and collected (The language of staying calm in a crisis)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
by Liz Walter
We all know that there’s no such thing as a perfect life. Even people who are generally happy and successful will always have some experiences that make them upset or frustrated. Today’s post looks at the language we use when we speak about this.
Continue reading “Taking the rough with the smooth: talking about imperfect situations”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
Regular readers of this blog often ask us for posts on English idioms used now in contemporary English. One way we make sure we provide up-to-date idioms is by looking at those used in current newspaper articles. The expressions included in this week’s post are taken from a range of national newspapers that were published on June 16, 2025.
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
A little while back, my colleague, Liz Walter, published a post on phrases that contain the word ‘blood’. Today, I’m picking up the ‘parts of the body’ theme with a post on idioms with the word ‘bone’. There are a surprising number of them!
Continue reading “I feel it in my bones (Idioms with ‘bone’)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
by Liz Walter
My last post looked at idioms that come from the sport of boxing. This post presents some more common sporting idioms. Back in 2019, I wrote about idioms with the word ‘ball’. I won’t repeat those here, but there are plenty of others!
Continue reading “Open goals and jumping the gun: more sporting idioms”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
by Liz Walter
Back in 1974, the world looked on as Muhammed Ali beat the great George Foreman in the thrilling boxing match known as the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’. Foreman’s recent death was a reminder of that contest, and also of just how many boxing terms have made their way into general idiomatic use. This post will cover a few of the most common ones.
Continue reading “The gloves are off: idiomatic phrases from boxing”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
by Liz Walter
Zoologists tell us that if you watch a group of chickens, you can place them in order of importance because birds with a high status peck those with a lower status. While humans don’t peck or – usually at any rate – physically harm one another to demonstrate power, we do use the phrase pecking order to talk about social hierarchy, in other words how important one person is in relation to others.
Continue reading “The pecking order: talking about how important people are (1)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
This is the second of my two-part post on useful idioms and phrases that feature the word ‘eye’. Part 1 focused mainly on expressions that said something about the act of looking and seeing. Today’s post features ‘eye’ phrases on a range of themes.
Continue reading “Your eyes are bigger than your stomach (Idioms with ‘eye’, Part 2)”
Listen to the author reading this blog post.
by Liz Walter
Today’s post and my next one look at words and phrases for talking about how much things cost – a common topic of conversation! This first one looks at words for things with high prices.
Continue reading “It costs a fortune: talking about high prices”
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)”