📔 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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📔 living on the edge



📋Meaning
 To have an adventurous or perilous lifestyle; to behave in a manner which creates risks for oneself.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 Despite the apparent respectability, he was a man who liked to live on the edge.
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📔 penguin suit


📋Meaning
slang A man's formal evening wear, i.e., a tuxedo.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣I need to find somewhere I can rent a penguin suit for my brother's wedding this summer.
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📔 A storm is brewing




📋Meaning
  There will be trouble or emotional upset in the near future.



🤔For example ⬇️

🗣 “She decided to go ahead with their wedding, even though all they’ve been doing lately is arguing. I can sense a storm is brewing.”
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📔 the butt of the joke


📋Meaning
Someone or something at whose expense an insulting or mocking joke is made.


🤔For example ⬇️

🗣I like hanging out with my brother and his friends, even though he likes to make me the butt of his jokes.

🗣Due to their disastrous advertising campaign last month, the company has been the butt of many jokes on the Internet lately.
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📔 have / get one's ducks in a row




📋Meaning
get well prepared or organized for something that's going to happen




🤔For example ⬇️

🗣  I wish we could join you but we have to get our ducks in a row before our move this weekend.

🗣Too bad you didn't have your ducks in a row before you quit your job.


🗣Why didn't you have your ducks in a row before your retirement?
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