2011

1. To eat one’s words

The idiom to eat one’s words means to admit that you are or were mistaken, especially after a strong or public expression of opinion.

Sentence: I told everyone to invest in that company, and now it’s bankrupt – I’ll have to eat my words.

• Dog on the manager

Someone who keeps something that they do not really want in order to prevent anyone else from having it.

Sentence: Stop being such a dog in the manger and let your brother ride your bike if you’re not using it.

• A Close Shave

A narrow escape.

Sentence: Wow, that was a close shave. I thought the guard would spot us.

• A Freudian Slip

A verbal mistake that is thought to reveal a repressed belief, thought, or emotion.

• A Gordian Knot

A Difficult Problem

Sentence: Homelessness in the inner cities has become a real Gordian knot.

• A cog in the machine

One part of a large system or organization.

Sentence: He was just a small cog in the large wheel of organised crime.

1. A sugar daddy

A wealthy, usually older man who gives expensive gifts to a young person in return for sexual favors or companionship.

• A wet blanket

Someone who does or says something that stops other people from enjoying themselves.

Sentence: I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but you really must play your music more quietly or you’ll disturb the people next door.

2010

1. Make for (intr, preposition)

1. to head towards, esp in haste
2. to prepare to attack
3. to help to bring about

your cooperation will make for the success of our project This class will make for the Auditorium now.

• Yeoman’s service

Efficient, useful or loyal service;arduous work

Tipu sultan rendered yeoman service for the the Islam

• Discretion is the better part of valour

:something that you say which means that it is better to be careful and think before you act than it is to be brave and take risks

She decided not to voice her opposition to the Chairman’s remarks. Perhaps discretion was the better part of valour

• Out of the woods

past a critical phase; out of the unknown.

When the patient got out of the woods, everyone relaxed.

I can give you a better prediction for your future health when you are out of the woods

• A casting vote decisive vote

The speaker used his casting vote in the favour of proposition

• Look down upon

think nothing of, be contemptuous of

Do not look down upon the down and out

• Iconoclast

One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions. One who destroys sacred religious images.

He was an iconoclast who refused to be bound by tradition.

• A swan song

A farewell or final appearance, action, or work.

The beautiful legendary song sung only once by a swan in its lifetime, as it is dying. I’m resigning tomorrow; this project was my swan song.

2009

(i)   Leave in the lurch

Abandon or desert someone in difficult straits

Jane was angry enough to quit without giving notice, leaving her boss in the lurch. Where were you Karman, you really left me in the lurch

This expression alludes to a 16th-century French dice game, lourche, where to incur a lurch meant to be far behind the other players. It later was used in cribbage and other games, as well as being used in its present figurative sense by about 1600.

(ii)   Hard and fast

Defined, fixed, invariable

We have hard and fast rules for this procedure. There is no hard and fast rule to start a computer

This term originally was applied to a vessel that has come out of water, either by running aground or being put in dry dock, and is therefore unable to move. By the mid-1800s it was being used figuratively.

(iii)   Weather the storm

Survive difficulties

If she can just weather the storm of that contract violation, she’ll be fine.

This expression alludes to a ship coming safely through bad weather. [Mid-1600s]

(iv)   Bear the brunt

Put up with the worst of some bad circumstance

It was the secretary who had to bear the brunt of the doctor’s anger. I had to bear the brunt of her screaming and yelling

This idiom uses brunt in the sense of “the main force of an enemy’s attack,” which was sustained

by the front lines of the defenders. [Second half of 1700s]

(v)     Meet halfway

If you meet someone halfway, you accept some of their ideas and make concessions.

If you want to settle the issues you have to meet me halfway

(vi)     Turncoat

one who goes to work / fight / play for the opposing side, traitor

That turncoat! He went to work for the competition – Sears. Ahmed is Turncoat and we should not relied upon him

(vii)     Where the shoe pinches

The source of trouble, grief, difficulty, etc