執筆者 Modern English | 2013年10月16日 | Idioms
“Did your mother say you could go out today? I thought you had a lot of homework.” “Well, not in so many words, but she implied it!” When we talk about what someone said, we often rephrase it using different words. We especially like to shorten things so we don’t have...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年10月09日 | Idioms
“You can’t just waltz into the demon king’s castle! You have to level up first!” A waltz is a kind of dance, but we say “waltz off” or “waltz into (somewhere)” to mean someone walks in a care-free way. It is often used when the speaker thinks the waltzer should take...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年10月02日 | Idioms
“My desk was all neat and organized, but then the cat ran across it, and now my papers are all higgledy-piggledy!” Things are higgledy-piggledy when they are scattered randomly about in a disorganized fashion. 「机の上のものはちゃんと整理整頓されていたのに、猫が机の上を走ったら全部めちゃくちゃになってしまった！」...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年09月25日 | Idioms
Sally: How are you, Betty? Betty: Oh, I’m on top of the world. I just got a great new job, my son got engaged, and my daughter won an award. Feeling “on top of the world” means being very, very happy. In idioms, “high” usually means “good”, so being above the rest of...
執筆者 Modern English | 2013年09月18日 | Idioms
Ted: You all want green peppers on your pizza right? We’ll have two large pizzas with green peppers. Steve: I hate green peppers! Fred: Don’t rock the boat, Steve! Everyone else loves them. Rocking the boat means making trouble for the group. If one person in a boat...
