American Idioms
Sit on one’s hands: refuse to give any help
e.g. When we needed your help; you just
sat on your hands.
Sit tight: wait patiently
e.g. Just relax and sit tight!
Skeleton in the closet: a hidden and
shocking secret
e.g. That he was a gay was skeleton in the closet.
Slang and Colloquial Expressions
Shoot
off: depart quickly.
e.g. You'd better shoot off before the storm comes.
Go
down with: be accepted or approved by.
e.g. The President's speech went down with the Spanish community.
Alive
and kicking: in good health.
e.g. "How is she doing?" "Very much alive and kicking."
Choice of Words
Exhausting / Exhaustive
Exhausting means making one very tired; exhaustive means very thorough, covering a lot.
e.g. To remove all the books from this room is exhausting work.
e.g. This is an exhaustive inquiry, covering every aspect of what happened.
Baleful / Baneful
Baleful means evil; baneful means harmful.
e.g. I don't like your friend, especially the baleful looks on his eyes.
e.g. Don't drink too
much alcohol; beware of its long-term baneful
effect on your health.
Indoor / Indoors
Indoor is an adjective; indoors is an adverb.
e.g. Bowling is an indoor game.
e.g. It's going to rain; let's go indoors.
Prepositional Words and Phrases
HEAD
Head off: intercept or divert someone or something.
e.g. I think we
can head off the problem this time.
e.g. Don't worry.
We can head it off with another new project
Head out: begin a journey.
e.g. What time do
we head out tomorrow morning?
Head up: be in charge of something.
e.g. I think I
shall head up the committee soon.
Stephen Lau
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