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From time to time, we all complain, whether it’s about the poor quality of service in a restaurant, a noisy neighbour, or rain that won’t stop. (Some people – and I certainly know one or two – never stop complaining!) This post will provide you with a range of interesting alternatives to ‘complain’ and ‘complaint’ and will explain the differences between them.
Continue reading “Stop whining! (Words for ‘complain’ and ‘complaint’)”
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by Liz Walter
My last post looked at words and phrases for things that cost a lot of money. Today’s post looks at ways of describing things that don’t cost much.
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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)”
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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”
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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)”
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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)”
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by Liz Walter
Most of us know someone who often gets into trouble because they don’t stop to consider the consequences of their behaviour. This post is about ways of describing these people and their actions.
Continue reading “Reckless and impulsive: words for acting without enough thought”
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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)”
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‘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.
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by Liz Walter
In my last post, I looked at how to say someone’s age using the number of years they have been alive. Today’s post covers some other ways of talking about how old a person is, particularly looking at different life stages.
Continue reading “Toddlers, tweens and pensioners: more words for talking about age”