American Idiom Dictionary

McGraw-Hill’s Essential American Idioms Dictionary Second Edition Richard A. Spears, Ph.D. New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data- base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-158933-3 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-149784-6. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. 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Neither McGraw-Hill nor its licensors shall be liable to you or any- one else for any inaccuracy, error or omision, regardless of cause, in the work or for any damages resulting therefrom. McGraw-Hill has no responsibility for the content of any information accessed through the work. Under no circumstances shall McGraw-Hill and/or its licensors be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive, consequential or similar damages that result from the use of or inability to use the work, even if any of them has been advised of the possibility of such damages. This limitation of liability shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tort or otherwise. DOI: 10.1036/0071497846 For more information about this title, click here Contents Introduction iv How the Dictionary Works v Idioms Dictionary 1 Hidden Key Word Index 247 iii Introduction Every language has phrases that cannot be understood literally. Even if you know the meanings of all the words in such a phrase and you understand the grammar completely, the total meaning of the phrase may still be confusing. English has many such idiomatic expres- sions. This dictionary is a selection of the frequently encountered idiomatic expressions found in everyday American English. The col- lection is small enough to serve as a useful study guide for learners, and large enough to serve as a reference for daily use. This third edition contains 2,000 idiomatic phrases. This edition also has a Hidden Key Word Index that allows the user to find a par- ticular idiom by looking up the words found “inside the idiom,” which is useful in finding the key words that do not occur at the beginning of the idiomatic phrase. This dictionary should prove useful for people who are learn- ing how to understand idiomatic English and for all speakers of English who want to know more about their language. iv Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for terms of use. How the Dictionary Works The following sections are numbered sequentially, since there is cross-referencing between the sections. Here is a directory: 1. Terms, Symbols, and Type Styles 2. Fixed and Variable Idioms 3. Optional Elements 4. Variable Elements 5. Movable Elements and the Dagger 6. Someone vs. One 7. The Asterisk, Swung Dash, and Shared Idiomatic Core 8. Brackets and Extra Information 9. Alphabetization, Organization, and Synonym Clusters 1. Terms, Symbols, and Type Styles (cid:1) (a square) is found at the beginning of an example. Examples are printed in italictype. Words emphasized within an example are printed in roman (not italic) type. † (a dagger) follows a movable element. (See #5.) * (an asterisk) stands for a short list of words or phrases that are part of an entry head, as with *above suspicion where the * stands for be, keep, remain. (See #7.) (cid:1) (a swung dash) stands for any entry head at the beginning of the entry block in which the swung dash is used. (See #7.) v Copyright © 2007 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for terms of use. How the Dictionary Works ( ) (parentheses) enclose optional elements and explanatory com- ments such as origins, etymologies, cross-referencing, and addi- tional entry heads formed with the swung dash. (See #3.) [ ] (brackets) enclose information in a definition that is necessary for the understanding of the entry head. (See #8.) AND introduces synonymousentry heads or additional entry heads after a sense number. Additional synonymous entry heads are separated by semicolons (;). (See #9.) Fig. means figurative or nonliteral. Euph. means euphemism or euphemistic. Go to means to locate and move to the entry head named after Go to. This does not indicate synonymy. An entry head being pointed to by a Go to is in sans serif type. Inf. means informal. Lit. means literal. movable element is an adverb or other particle that can either follow or precede a direct object. In entry heads movable ele- ments follow the direct object and are followed by the dagger (†). (See #5.) optional element is a word, phrase, or variable elementthat may or may not be present in an entry head. Optional elements are enclosed in parentheses. (See #3.) Rur. means rural. See also means to consult the entry head named after See alsofor additional information or to find expressions similar in form or meaning. An entry head being pointed to by a See alsois in sans serif type. sense is the definition of an entry head. Some entry heads have two or more senses, and in this case, the senses are numbered. Some senses have additional entry heads for that sense only. These appear after the sense number and are preceded by the word and in light type. (See #9.) vi How the Dictionary Works Sl. means slang or highly informal. synonymous means having the same meaning. Synonymy is the quality of having the same meaning. typeface: bold is used for the introduction of entry heads. typeface: italic is used for examples and to single out individual words for comment. typeface: sans serif is used for entry heads that are referred to, such as with cross-referencing. typeface: light, condensed sans serif is used for variable elements. variable element is a “word” in an entry head that can stand for an entire list or class of words or phrases. Variable elements are in light, condensed sans serif type. (See #4.) 2. Fixed and Variable Idioms Although idioms are usually described as “fixed phrases,” most of them exhibit some type of variation. A much larger number of idioms present different kinds of variation, and much of the sym- bolic and typographic apparatus used here describes the details of this variation. The majority of the idioms found in this dictionary— and in the real world—allow four kinds of variation, as represented by optional elements, variable elements, movable elements, and grammatical variation. Optional elements are enclosed in paren- theses within an entry head. Variable elements are printed in a light, condensed sans serif typefacein an entry head. Movable elements, mostly in idiomatic phrasal verbs, are followed by the dagger (†). Gram- matical variation—as with differences in tense, aspect, voice, irreg- ular forms, number, and pronoun case and gender—can cause some confusion in identifying the dictionary form of the idiom. A knowl- edge of basic English grammar provides the ability to reduce nouns to their singular form, verbs to their infinitive or bare form, and pas- sive voice to active. vii How the Dictionary Works 3. Optional Elements An example of an optional element is the word two in the follow- ing entry head: alike as (two) peas in a pod. This idiom is actually two variant forms: alike as peas in a pod alike as two peas in a pod 4. Variable Elements Variable elements stand for the classes or lists of the possible words or phrases that can occur in entry heads. They are sort of wild cards. The most common variable elements used here are: so = someone; sth= something; so/sth= someone or something; one= the same per- son as the agent of the utterance (see #6); some place = a location. There are others that are more specific, such as an amount of money; some quality; some time; doing sth; etc. 5. Movable Elements and the Dagger The dagger (†)will be found in the following sequence, typically called a phrasal verb: Verb + Object + Particle (†) Put + your hat + on. (†) Take + the trash + out. (†) The dagger indicates that the particle can also occur before the object. This means that there is an alternate form of the idiom: Verb + Particle + Object Put + on + your hat. Take + out + the trash. viii How the Dictionary Works 6. Someone vs. One Two of the variable elements discussed above, so and one, are quite distinct from one another and need further explanation. The use of the word one in a sentence seems very stilted, and many people would feel uncomfortable using it in the company of their peers. Do not worry about that; it is just a stand-in for a class of variables. Used as a variable element here, it refers to the same human being that is named as the agent or subject of the sentence in which the vari- able element one is found. The variable element oneself works the same way. For an example, look at the following idiom: able to do sth standing on one’s head Here are some sentences containing this idiom: Heis able to bake cookies standing on hishead. Sheis able to bake cookies standing on herhead. Those guysare able to bake cookies standing on theirheads. Now look at this incorrect representation of the idiom: X able to do sth standing on so’s head Here are some sentences containing this incorrect representation: X Heis able to bake cookies standing on herhead. X Sheis able to bake cookies standing on Tom’s friends’head. Native speakers of English know instinctively that the X-marked sentences are wrong, but language learners do not have this knowl- edge and require these details to be spelled out. This dictionary spells out the required knowledge by showing the difference between one and someone. 7. The Asterisk, Swung Dash, and Shared Idiomatic Core Examine the following idiomatic expressions: ix