1981
1- To have your cake and eat it too
If someone wants to have their cake and eat it too, they want everything their way, especially when their wishes are contradictory.
2- Between the devil and the deep blue sea
If you are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, you are in a dilemma; a difficult choice.
3- To be in hot water
If you get into hot water, you get into trouble
4- To be on the carpet
Summoned before someone in authority for punishment
5- It never rains but it pours
when things go wrong, they go very wrong.
6- A miss is as good as a mile
Coming close to success but failing is no better than failing by a lot
He was beaten by just one vote, but a miss is as good as a mile.
This proverbial expression, first recorded in 1614, is a shortening of the older form, “An inch of a miss is as good [or bad] as a mile of a miss.”
7- To give oneself airs
Assume a haughty manner, pretend to be better than one is
I’m sick of Claire and the way she puts on airs.
Airs here means “a manner of superiority.” [c. 1700]
8- To have the courage of one’s convictions
Behave according to one’s beliefs
Carl wouldn’t give his best friend any of the test answers; he had the courage of his convictions.
This expression is believed to have originated as a translation of the French le courage de son opinion (“the courage of his opinion”), dating from the mid-1800s and at first so used. By the late 1800s it had changed to the present form.
9- The onlooker sees most of the game 10- Out of sight out of mind
It is used to suggest that someone will not think or worry about something if it isn’t directly visible or available to them
1980
1- Pocket the affront
Thin end of the wedge
The thin end of the wedge is something small and seemingly unimportant that will lead to something much bigger and more serious.
3- Flash in the pan
If something is a flash in the pan, it is very noticeable but doesn’t last long, like most singers, who are very successful for a while, then forgotten
4- To keep at
Persevere or persist at doing something.
If you keep at your Math, you’ll soon master it.
It is also put as keep at it
He kept at it all day and finally finished the report. [Early 1800s]
Keep at someone
Nag, harass, or annoy someone
You have to keep at Carl if you want him to do the work. He keeps at Millie all the time.
5- At one’s beck and call
Ready to comply with any wish or command
6- Go against the grain
A person who does things in an unconventional manner, especially if their methods are not
generally approved of, is said to go against the grain. Such an individual can be called a maverick.
7- Bring grist to the mill
Something that you can use to your advantage is grist for the mill.
8- Upset the apple cart
Spoil carefully laid plans
Now don’t upset the apple cart by revealing where we’re going.
This expression started out as upset the cart, used since Roman times to mean “spoil everything”. The precise idiom dates from the late 1700s.
9- Hoist on one’s own petard
If you are hoist with your own petard, you get into trouble or caught in a trap that you had set for someone else.
10- Live on the fat of the land
The best or richest of anything
The tiny upper class lived off the fat of the land while many of the poor were starving.
This expression alludes to fat in the sense of “the best or richest part”. The Bible has it as eat the fat of the land (Genesis 45:18).
1979
1- Taken down at peg
If someone is taken down a peg (or taken down a peg or two), they lose status in the eyes of others because of something they have done wrong or badly.
2- To monkey with 3- In hot water
in trouble
4- Petticoat Government 5- To pull oneself together
Regain one’s composure or self-control
After that frightening episode, it took her a while to pull herself together. [Second half of 1800s]
6- To rise from the ranks / come up through the ranks
Work one’s way to the top
He’s risen through the ranks, starting as a copy boy and ending up as senior editor.
Originally this term was used for an officer who had worked his way up from the rank of private, a rare feat. It was being applied to non-military advances by the mid-1800s
7- To rub shoulders
If you rub shoulders with people, you meet and spend time with them, especially when they are powerful or famous.
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