📔 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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📔 waste one’s breath





📋Meaning
  to say something that will probably be ignored or not have any effect




🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 You could tell her that her hairstyle looks ridiculous but you’d just be wasting your breath.


🗣 I don’t waste my breath asking my kids to get off the Internet—instead I just disconnect it each night at 8 PM.
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📔 chum up


📋Meaning
To be friendly with someone.

🤔For example ⬇️

🗣Why is Patrick chumming up to me all of a sudden? He's usually so distant.
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📔 Midas touch



📋Meaning
  To be able to make money easily. This idiom comes from the story of King Midas , who turned everything he touched into gold.



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “Jane really has the Midas touch. Every business she starts becomes very successful.”
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📔 close as the bark to the tree


📋Meaning
As connected as is possible. Often used to describe a particularly intimate relationship or friendship.

🤔For example ⬇️

🗣Jenna and Elise are as close as the bark to the tree—I rarely see one without the other!
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📔 in demand



📋Meaning
 something that is needed or desired by many people

popular and wanted



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 What kinds of new college graduates are in demand with private companies these days?

🗣 Full-figured and ethnic models are more and more in demand each year.
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📔 seep away


📋Meaning
Literally, of a gas or liquid, to flow out and escape from (something) gradually but steadily, as through a leak, crack, puncture, etc.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣Make sure you close the valve tight on that jar—we don't want any of the gas to seep away.
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📔 At a snail's pace



📋Meaning
Very slowly.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 I'm never coming to this restaurant again. They serve the food at a snail's pace.      

🗣I recommend you bring a book when you go to the post office. It's the holidays and they always work at a snail's pace this time of year.     

🗣  Traffic was moving at a snail's pace so I arrived 45 minutes late for work.
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📔 spit (out) the dummy



📋Meaning
To have a childish overreaction or angry outburst to a negative situation or outcome; to act in a bad-tempered manner, likened to a temper tantrum of a child. "Dummy" here refers to a plastic teat used to soothe teething infants (also called a "pacifier" in the U.S. or a "soother" elsewhere), which they may spit when in the middle of a tantrum. Primarily heard in Australia.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣John spat the dummy when I told him I'd sold his old comic book collection.

🗣Don't go spitting out the dummy just because Cheryl got the promotion instead of you.
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📔 Packed like sardines




📋Meaning
  What do you see when you open up a can of sardines? Yes, the fish crammed inside the can. So packed like sardines describes a place or situation that’s very crowded with people (or animals)—for example, a concert hall or sports event.



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “Were you at the football game last night? The stadium was packed like sardines.”
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📔 go for a spin (to some place)



📋Meaning
To go for a brief, leisurely drive (to some place).


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣Hey Noah, fancy going for a spin to the grocery store with me?

🗣Jenny just got a new car for her birthday, so I think we're going to go for a spin after school.
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📔 To be loaded



📋Meaning
  To have a lot of money.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “Billy paid his Harvard Law School tuition with cash. His family is loaded.”
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📔 not get a wink of sleep



📋Meaning
To not get any sleep.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣Our newborn son is rather colicky, so my wife and I haven't gotten a wink of sleep the last few nights.
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📔 Pour oil on troubled waters



📋Meaning
  To try to make people feel better and become friendly again after an argument. 



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “She hated seeing her two best friends arguing, so she got them together and poured oil on troubled waters.”
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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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📔 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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📔 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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📔 hit the books



📋Meaning
 this is a commonly used expression among students, especially American college students who have a lot of studying to do. It simply means “to study,” and is a way of telling your friends that you’re going to study.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣“Sorry but I can’t watch the game with you tonight, I have to hit the books. I have a huge exam next week!”

🗣 “Danny was in danger of failing, so before his last math test he left the show early to go home and hit the books.”
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📔 shank's nag



📋Meaning
One's legs and feet, used for walking; travel by foot. Also "shanks' nag." A reference to the shank— the lower leg between the knee and the ankle—and the use of ponies or horses for travel.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣My bicycle fell apart three miles away from home, so I had to use shank's nag to go the rest of the way.

🗣Unfortunately, with the sedentary lifestyle many lead today, shank's nag has largely become an obsolete mode of travel.
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📔 Walking on air



📋Meaning
  Very excited or happy. “Over the moon,” “on cloud nine,” “in seventh heaven” and “in good spirits” 


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “She’s been walking on air since she found out that she’s pregnant.”
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