All posts by: HS.

English Idioms: Fish Out of Water

fish out of water—n. phr. If you feel like “a fish out of water,” you’re in a place where you’re not comfortable. You’re not in the kind of place you usually are. This common idiom obviously pictures fish, which certainly are not comfortable on dry land. It has been traced back to the late 1300s.



Example: 


After living in the country for so many years, Debby felt like a fish out of water in the city.


Check out the Targets in English Facebook page and find us on Twitter.

English Idioms: Baseball—Get to First Base

get to first base—v. phr., to succeed in the beginning of something. Also: reach first base. This idiom comes from baseball, with first base being the first point a runner must reach after hitting the ball. The phrase is now used widely outside of baseball, often in the negative: not get to first base.


Examples:

Helen won’t reach first base when she tries to get a job here; she’s too young.

Patricia and her co-workers didn’t get to first base when they met to plan the party; they only argued.

Related English

On a baseball diamond, you have first, second, and third base, along with home plate. The players defending the bases are the first baseman, the second baseman, and the third baseman. Guarding home plate, of course, is the catcher.

Baseball Idioms

Other idioms that use bases include touch bases and off base. Learn more baseball idioms at EnglishMobi this week as the World Series gets underway in the U.S., between the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals.


Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Kitesurfing at the Golden Gate

Kitesurfing in San Francisco Bay.

On weekends, the waters around the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco are popular for a variety of water sports, including kitesurfing, seen here. Kitesurfing is an extreme sport that uses a large “power kite” and a special surfboard. The kitesurfers are able to fly above the water and do flips.

In the picture, the kite appears to be higher than the Golden Gate Bridge, though of course it is not. This shot was taken at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, a great spot to get a close-up view of the bridge. Here, you can also watch kitesurfers, windsurfers, and a variety of sailboats and yachts.


More coming soon from EnglishMobi. Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Baseball Idioms: Ballpark Figure

–n. phr., an estimate, an estimate that is acceptable. The estimate may be for the number of people who went to an event, or it may be the amount of money that something will cost. A ballpark, of course, is a baseball field. This idiom comes from an earlier idiom, in the ballpark, which means “within a reasonable range.”


Examples:

We don’t know the exact costs yet, but I can give you a ballpark figure.

The travel agent was only able to offer a ballpark figure on how much the trip would cost.

Looking at some real ballpark figures, Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City, where Game 6 of the World Series will be played tonight, can hold 37,903 people. And that number shows only a portion of how many people will watch the game. There’s also TV. Games 4 and 5, held in San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday, had 10.7 million and 12.6 million U.S. TV viewers respectively.

Be sure and tune in tonight as the San Francisco Giants, leading the series 3-2, try to finish off the Kansas City Royals.

Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

English Idioms: Money: Foot the Bill

foot the bill—v. phr., to pay for something. Foot is used here in the sense of the “foot,” or the bottom, of a bill, where the total is written.
Examples:
Jean asked us all out to dinner knowing she was going to have to foot the bill.
Kim’s father wanted to foot the bill for her wedding.
Money Idioms
Money is something people like to talk about—a lot! “How much did you spend?” “How much did it cost?” So it is not surprising that there are a lot of colorful idioms used to talk about money and that come from money.
What does it mean if a person lives high on the hog (pig)? Is this person riding a pig? Or what if someone is in the red? Is the person angry?
  
Learn these and other common English idioms for money in Idioms 1: Money—Hit the Jackpot. The first book in the Quick Targets Idioms Series, this e-book is free on 20/23 and 10/24, from Amazon worldwide. Download it free today, so you can hit the jackpot!

Free at: 

Amazon Australia


Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

Winter Idioms 2

  • by
  • November 22, 2014
  • 0

Idioms make English more colorful and fun, but they are difficult to learn because there are so many of them. A good solution for learners is to study a small number of phrases that are related by topic. This makes them easier to learn and easier to remember.


Here are some more useful idioms related to winter and the cold. Go ahead and read them, and don’t get cold feet.


1. get cold feet—v. phr., to decide suddenly not to do something, to suddenly become afraid to do it. This idiom dates from the late 1800s.


Examples:

Barry was ready to move to Italy when he suddenly got cold feet and canceled the move.

Frank looked nervous on the morning of his wedding. “What’s the matter?” his father asked. “Getting cold feet?”


2. pure as the driven snow—adj. phr., innocent, morally good. Purehere means “clean” or “not dirty” and thus innocent. Snow then is white, even pureor completely white. Driven, which means “carried by the wind,” is often omitted. This idiom is used less today.


Example:

The mayor was pure as the driven snow, so everyone trusted him.



3. snow under—v. phr., overwhelmed, such as by work. This phrase pictures being buried by snow. It is often used in the passive voice: be snowed over.


Example:

We were snowed over with work, so we all stayed at the office late.


4. cold spell—n. phr., a short period of very cold weather. In addition to meaning “write or say the letters of a word,” spell means a period of time, as in I worked as a fisherman for a spell. The idiom cold spell, and also cold snap, is common for a sudden cold weather.

Examples:

The weather report says we have a cold spell coming.

The sudden cold spell interrupted to planned golf tournament.


5. cold shoulder—n. phr., not being nice or polite to someone, deliberate bad treatment. The idiom is said to come from a custom where people welcome guests they like with a warm meal, but offering only a cold meal to people they don’t like. The phrase is often used with give.


Examples:

Nate asked Sara on a date, but she gave him the cold shoulder and just walked away.

Denise has given me the cold shoulder ever since I accidentally broke her cellphone.


Learn more idioms by topic with Quick Targets in English.

Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.


(C) 2014, by Story Crest Press. All rights reserved.

Winter Idioms 1

  • by
  • November 13, 2014
  • 0
Idioms make English more colorful and fun, but they are difficult to learn because there are so many of them. A good solution for learners is to study a small number of phrases that are related by topic. This makes them easier to learn and easier to remember.

Here are some useful idioms related to winter and the cold.

1. dead of winter—n. phr., the coldest part of winter. This idiom dates from the 1600s. Dead of is used to mean the most intense part of something. A similar idiom is the dead of night, which means the darkest part of the night.

Examples:

It’s the dead of winter, so you’ll find few birds here in the cold.

The thief disappeared into the dead of night.



2. break the ice—v. phr., to say or do something to start a conversation; to say or do something that gets people to relax.

Examples:

The instructor told a few jokes at the beginning of the class to break the ice.

Hal gets nervous when he meets people, but you can break the ice by asking him about sports. He loves sports.


3. on thin ice—adj. phr., in a risky or dangerous position. This idiom alludes to walking or skating on thin ice, which easily breaks. In places where lakes and ponds freeze over, people who want to ice skate or go ice fishing have to see if the ice is thick enough to walk on. The phrase is sometimes used with walking or skating: walking on thin ice, skating on thin ice.


Examples:

Shelly knew she was walking on thin ice when she came late to work for a third time in one week.

Carl was on thin ice with his father after he scratched his father’s car.


4. snowball effect—n. phr. A situation in which something gets increasingly worse or bigger. Think about taking a small snowball rolling along the ground, and it gets larger and larger as it goes.

Example:

As more people bought the stock, its price increased, making even more people want to invest in the company. It was a snowball effect.



5. snowball’s chance in hell—n. phr., very unlikely, or having no chance of success. This idiom, which dates from the 1800s, pictures hell as an extremely hot place, with lots of fire. A snowball of course would not be very successful in hell, as it would quickly melt.


Example:

Leslie doesn’t have a snowball’s change in hell of getting a job at that company; she doesn’t have enough experience.


Learn more idioms by topic with Quick Targets in English.

Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

  • by
  • October 23, 2014
  • 0

Quick Targets

Idioms 1: Money—Hit the Jackpot

Book 1: Money!

10/23-10/24, Free on Amazon

Check out the first book in the new Quick Targets Idioms Series for free
Thursday and Friday, available from Amazon.

And read it on any device, iOS or Android, with free apps from Amazon. Click here.

Free at: 
Amazon.com
Amazon Canada
Amazon Japan
Amazon Germany
Amazon U.K.
Amazon Brazil
Amazon Italy
Amazon Mexico
Amazon France
Amazon Spain
Amazon Australia

Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

English Idioms: Autumn—Turn Over a New Leaf

  • by
  • October 17, 2014
  • 0


—v. phr., to make a new start in your life, to change your behavior or your plans. This is an appropriate idiom for autumn, when trees are losing their leaves. But the idiom actually comes from the idea of turning pages in a book. .



Example: 



Brian wanted to turn over a new leaf after his troubles in university.


Related English


The word leaf (n.) also means a part of a book, or a page that your turn. And if you leaf through (phrasal verb) a book, you turn its pages and look at what is on them.

Example: 



She leafed through the magazine while she waited to see the doctor.



Leaf through more idioms with EnglishMobi. Visit EnglishMobi on the Web, on Facebook, and on Twitter.

English Idioms—Kick Off

  • by
  • September 7, 2014
  • 0

kick off—v., to start, to begin.

This idiom comes from American football, where games begin when a player kicks the football to the other team. The phrase today is widely used both in written and spoken English, for events and periods of time, as in The conference kicked off. . ., the school year kicked off . . . The noun kickoff is also common both in the sport and elsewhere, as in the kickoff of the conference.

Examples:

Our team kicked the ball off at the beginning of the game.

The school year kicks off next week.

The school is kicking the year off with a Back to School Party.

The conference will kick off with as keynote speech.


kickoff—n., start, beginning.

The noun kickoff has also moved from American football to become a widely used idiom, both as a simple noun and one used in the attributive (as an adjective).

Examples:

The game’s kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

The mayor held a campaign kickoff last week.

The conference began with a kickoff event.


Notes


The first and second halves of American and Canadian football games begin with one team kicking off the ball. With the ball set on a tee, one player kicks it, and the player who catches it tries to run it back. The kicking team then tries to stop the runner by tackling him. Teams also kick off after scoring points.



By John Sailors
(C) 2014, by EnglishMobi.

123