📔 rags to riches



📋Meaning
Characterized by a rise from poverty to great or exceptional wealth. Hyphenated if used as a modifier before a noun.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣My uncle's is a true rags-to-riches story. He grew up without a penny, but through sheer determination, he founded his own company and is now one of the wealthiest men in the state.

🗣After her book became an international phenomenon, the former waitress went from rags to riches almost overnight.

🗣The film is a rags-to-riches story of a beggar who goes on to find fame and fortune with his amazing singing voice.
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📔 Cash Cow



📋Meaning
  a business, investment, or product that provides a steady income or profit.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 a singer deemed a cash cow for the record label.

🗣The football team was a cash cow for the university.
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📔 take a piece out of (one)



📋Meaning
To harshly reprimand one.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣My parents are going to take a piece out of me when they find out I crashed the car.
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📔 kick to the curb



📋Meaning

to discard, dismiss or reject something or someone (especially in a humiliating manner, as if putting garbage out by the curb)


✨Note
a curb is the raised stone or concrete edge by the side of the road. When you cross the street, you step up onto the curb to get from the road and onto the sidewalk. 

Residents of homes usually bring their trash to the curb in front of their house so that garbage collectors can easily and quickly put the garbage into the truck.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 Vote November 3rd to kick Donald Trump to the curb.

🗣Help us with a $20 donation so we can kick cancer to the curb.
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📔 be in pursuit


📋Meaning
Following or chasing someone or something.

🤔For example ⬇️

🗣The burglar got away, but I called the police, and now they're in pursuit.
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📔 Between a rock and a hard place



📋Meaning
  In difficulty, faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “I can understand why she couldn’t make up her mind about what to do. She’s really between a rock and a hard place.”
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📔 have known better days


📋Meaning
To be or look particularly shabby, ill-kept, or in poor condition.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣Well, this car has known better days, but it's been reliable for me since the day I bought it 20 years ago.

🗣The poor guy who runs the building is a sweet fellow, but he has certainly known better days by the looks of him.
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📔Achilles’ heel

📋Meaning
a vulnerable spot or weakness

🤔For example ⬇️

🗣The corrupt minister is regarded as the government’s Achilles heel and is expected to resign.

🗣Though he was a good person, his short temper was his Achilles heel.

🌟Origin
The phrase has its origins in the legend of the Greek hero Achilles. According to the legend, Achilles was dipped into the river Styx by his mother Thetis to him invulnerable. The only portion of his body not immersed into the water was his heels, by which his mother held him. As a result, the heels were the only vulnerable part of his body. He was later killed by an arrow that struck his heel.
Though the legend is ancient, the phrase was not used in English until the 19th century. An early citation appears in an essay by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in “The Friend; a literary, moral and political weekly paper” in 1810.
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📔 all sharped up


📋Meaning
Very nicely dressed.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣The guys in the wedding party are all sharped up for the ceremony—they look so handsome!

🗣I have to be all sharped up at this event tonight—a lot of important people will be there.
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📔 In hot water



📋Meaning
  When someone is in hot water, they’re in a bad situation or serious trouble.



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “My brother is in hot water for failing all his college classes.”
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📔 pound sand



📋Meaning
To engage in pointless, menial efforts or labor. Used especially as an imperative to express disdain, contempt, or dismissal.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣I can't believe Sam told his teacher to go pound sand. Where does that kid get such attitude?

🗣Charles, why don't you pound sand instead of coming around here hassling me about my business?
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📔 wait tables



📋Meaning
  to serve customers food and beverages in a restaurant or cafe


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 I waited tables for five years to pay expenses while I was in college.


🗣 Waiting tables is a popular job for students and artists.
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📔 take ill



📋Meaning
To be or become sick or unwell.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣I heard your sister has taken ill recently. I hope that it isn't anything too serious?
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📔 Make waves



📋Meaning
  To cause trouble, to change things in a dramatic way.



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “She likes to make waves with her creative marketing campaigns. They get a lot of attention from customers.”
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📔 scare story



📋Meaning
A story or rumor that makes something seem more serious, dreadful, or terrifying than it really is.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣Every year around Halloween, there's some scare story in the news about razor blades being found in candy.

🗣You just can't listen to all the scare stories people love to spread or you'd end up being afraid of everything!
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📔 the world is your oyster





📋Meaning
  used to say that you can do anything or go anywhere you want in life.



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 That's awesome you're learning English. With English, the world is your oyster!

🗣 You're young and beautiful. Don't be sad, the world is your oyster.
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📔 be tied (up) in knots


📋Meaning
To be confused, anxious, worried, and/or upset (about something).


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣I've been tied up in knots trying to come up with a good topic for my term paper, but I just can't think of anything!

🗣James is tied in knots over how to break up with Danielle, but I think he needs to bite the bullet and just do it.
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📔 Lost at sea



📋Meaning
  To be confused about something or to feel unsure about what to do.

🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “I am lost at sea with this new system at work. I just can’t understand it.”
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📔 to a turn


📋Meaning
For exactly the right amount of time necessary or desired. (Used almost exclusively in reference to how well meat is cooked).


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣My goodness, these steaks are so flavorful and have been cooked to a turn!

🗣Jeff is always the one manning the grill, because he makes sure everything on there is done to a turn!
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📔 In a nutshell




📋Meaning
  a brief / short summary of something.



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 In a nutshell, my parents grounded me for five weeks after they caught me smoking behind the house.

🗣 I'm sorry to interrupt you but could you please give us your point in a nutshell?
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📔 catnap/take a catnap



📋Meaning
A very brief but restful period of sleep./To sleep for a very brief but restful period of time.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣I'm going to try to squeeze in a catnap before my next shift starts, or else I'll be feeling sluggish for the entire evening.

🗣Julie gets up really early to do her writing before the kids wake up, then takes little catnaps throughout the day.
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