Неизвестен Автор - Словарь американских идиом (8000 единиц)

[bone to pick] or [crow to pick] , A reason for dispute; something to complain of or argue about. - Often used jokingly. * /"I have a bone to pick with you," he said./ * /There was always a crow to pick about which one would shave first in the morning./ Compare: BONE OF CONTENTION.

[bone up] , To fill with information; try to learn a lot about something in a short time; study quickly. * /Carl was boning up for an examination./ * /Jim had to make a class report the next day on juvenile delinquency, and he was in the library boning up on how the courts handle it./

[bonnet] See: BEE IN ONE'S BONNET.

[book] See: CLOSED BOOK, CLOSE THE BOOKS, HIT THE BOOKS, KEEP BOOKS, NOSE IN A BOOK, ONE FOR THE BOOKS, READ ONE LIKE A BOOK, TALKING BOOK, THROW THE BOOK AT.

[boom] See: LOWER THE BOOM.

[boot] See: DIE IN ONE'S BOOTS, IN ONE'S SHOES also IN ONE'S BOOTS, LICK ONE'S BOOTS, SHAKE IN ONE'S SHOES or SHAKE IN ONE'S BOOTS, TO BOOT, TOO BIG FOR ONE'S BREECHES or TOO BIG FOR ONE'S BOOTS, YOU BET or YOU BET YOUR BOOTS.

[boot hill] A cemetery in the old Wild West where cowboys and cops and robbers used to be buried with their boots on. Hence, jokingly, any cemetery. * /Good old Joe, the cowboy, is resting comfortably in the nearby boot hill./

[boot out] See: KICK OUT.

[boot strap] See: PULL ONESELF UP BY THE BOOTSTRAPS.

[border on] To be adjacent to; come close to; adjoin. * /Our village borders on the Mississippi River./ * /John's actions border on irresponsibility./

[bore to death] See: TO DEATH.

[bore to tears] To fill with tired dislike; tire by dullness or the same old thing bore. * /The party was dull and Roger showed plainly that he was bored to tears./ * /Mary loved cooking, but sewing bores her to tears./

[born] See: NATURAL-BORN, TO THE MANNER BORN.

[born out of wedlock] Born to parents who are not married to each other; without legal parents. * /Sometimes when a married couple can't have children, they adopt a child who was born out of wedlock./ * /Today we no longer make fun of children born out of wedlock./

[born with a silver spoon in one's mouth] Born to wealth and comfort; provided from birth with everything wanted; born rich. * /The stranger's conduct was that of a man who had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth./ Compare: WELL-HEELED.

[born yesterday] Inexperienced and easily fooled; not alert to trickery; easily deceived or cheated. - Usually used in negative sentences. * /When Bill started the new job, the other workers teased him a little, but he soon proved to everyone that he wasn't born yesterday./ * /I won't give you the money till I see the bicycle you want to sell me. Do you think I was born yesterday?/ Compare: NOBODY'S FOOL.

[borrow] See: LIVE ON BORROWED TIME.

[borrow trouble] To worry for nothing about trouble that may not come; make trouble for yourself needlessly. * /Don't borrow trouble by worrying about next year. It's too far away./ * /You are borrowing trouble if you try to tell John what to do./ Compare: ASK FOR, CROSS ONE'S BRIDGES BEFORE ONE COMES TO THEM, CRY BEFORE ONE IS HURT.

[bosom friend] A very close friend; an old buddy with whom one has a confidential relationship. * /Sue and Jane have been bosom friends since their college days./

[boss] See: STRAW BOSS.

[boss one around] To keep giving someone orders; to act overbearingly toward someone. * /"If you keep bossing me around, darling," Tom said to Jane, "the days of our relationship are surely numbered."/

[botch up] To ruin, spoil, or mess something up. * /"I botched up my chemistry exam," Tim said, with a resigned sigh./

[both] See: CUT BOTH WAYS, PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES.

[both --- and] Used to emphasize that two or more things are talked about. * /Both Frank and Mary were at the party./ * /Millie is both a good swimmer and a good cook./ * /In the program tonight Mary will both sing and dance./ * /The frog can move quickly both on land and in the water./ Compare: AS WELL AS. Contrast EITHER OR.

[bothered] See: HOT AND BOTHERED.

[bottle blond] , A person who is obviously not a natural blond but whose hair is artificially colored. * /I doubt that Leonora's hair color is natural; she strikes me as a bottle blond./

[bottleneck] A heavy traffic congestion. * /In Chicago the worst bottleneck is found where the Kennedy and the Eden's expressways separate on the way to the airport./

[bottle up] 1. To hide or hold back; control. * /There was no understanding person to talk to, so Fred bottled up his unhappy feeling./ 2. To hold in a place from which there is no escape; trap. * /Our warships bottled up the enemy fleet in the harbor./

[bottom] See: BET ONE'S BOOTS or BET ONE'S BOTTOM DOLLAR, FROM THE BOTTOM OF ONE'S HEART, FROM --- TO ---, GET TO THE BOTTOM OF, HIT BOTTOM or TOUCH BOTTOM, ROCK BOTTOM, SCRAPE THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL.

[bottom dollar] , , One's last penny, one's last dollar. * /He was down to his bottom dollar when he suddenly got the job offer./

[bottom drop out] or [bottom fall out] 1. To fall below an earlier lowest price. * /The bottom dropped out of the price of peaches./ 2. To lose all cheerful qualities; become very unhappy, cheerless, or unpleasant. * /The bottom dropped out of the day for John when he saw his report card./ * /The bottom fell out for us when the same ended with our team on the two yard line and six points behind./

[bottom line] , (stress on "line") 1. The last word on a controversial issue; a final decision. * /"Give me the bottom line on the proposed merger," said John./ 2. The naked truth without embellishments. * /Look, the bottom line is that poor Max is an alcoholic./ 3. The final dollar amount; for example, the lowest price two parties reach in bargaining about a sale. * /"Five-hundred, " said the used car dealer, "is the bottom line. Take it or leave it."/

[bottom line] , (stress on "bottom") To finish; to bring to a conclusion. * /Okay, you guys, let's bottom line this project and break for coffee./

[bottom out] To reach the lowest point (said chiefly of economic cycles). * /According to the leading economic indicators the recession will bottom out within the next two months./

[bounce] See: GET THE BOUNCE, GIVE THE BOUNCE.

[bound] See: BIND, BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS, OUT OF BOUNDS, WITHIN BOUNDS.

[bound for] On the way to; going to. * /I am bound for the country club./ * /The ship is bound for Liverpool./

[bound up with] To be connected; be involved with. * /Tuition at our university is bound up with the state budget./

[bow] See: TAKE A BOW.

[bow and scrape] To be too polite or obedient from fear or hope of gain; act like a slave. * /The old servant bowed and scraped before them, too obedient and eager to please./

[bowl of cherries] See: BED OF ROSES.

[bowl over] , 1. To knock down as if with a bowled ball. * /The taxi hit him a glancing blow and bowled him over./ 2. To astonish with success or shock with misfortune; upset; stun. * /He was bowled over by his wife's sudden death./ * /The young actress bowled over everybody in her first movie./

[bow out] , 1. To give up taking part; excuse yourself from doing any more; quit. * /Mr. Black often quarreled with his partners, so finally he bowed out of the company./ * /While the movie was being filmed, the star got sick and had to bow out./ 2. To stop working after a long service; retire. * /He bowed out as train engineer after forty years of railroading./

[box] See: IN A BIND or IN A BOX, PENALTY BOX, PRESS BOX, STUFF THE BALLOT BOX, VOICE BOX.

[box office] , 1. The place at movies and theaters where tickets may be purchased just before the performance instead of having ordered them through the telephone or having bought them at a ticket agency. * /No need to reserve the seats; we can pick them up at the box office./ 2. A best selling movie, musical, or drama (where the tickets are all always sold out and people line up in front of the box office). * /John Wayne's last movie was a regular box office./ 3. Anything successful or well liked. * /Betsie is no longer box office with me./

[boy] See: ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY, FAIR-HAIRED BOY, MAMA'S BOY, OLD BOY, SEPARATE THE MEN FROM THE BOYS.

[boyfriend] , 1. A male friend or companion. * /"John and his boyfriends have gone to the ball game," said his mother./ 2. A girl's steady date, a woman's favorite man friend; a male lover or sweetheart. * /Jane's new boyfriend is a senior in high school./ Contrast: GIRL FRIEND.

[boys will be boys] Boys are only children and must sometimes get into mischief or trouble or behave too roughly. * /Boys will be boys and make a lot of noise, so John's mother told him and his friends to play in the park instead of the back yard./

[brain] See: BEAT ONE'S BRAINS OUT, BLOW ONE'S BRAINS OUT, ON THE BRAIN, RACK ONE'S BRAIN, GET ONE'S BRAINS FRIED.

[brain bucket] , A motorcycle helmet. * /If you want to share a ride with me, you've got to wear a brain bucket./

[brain drain] , 1. The loss of the leading intellectuals and researchers of a country due to excessive emigration to other countries where conditions are better. * /Britain suffered a considerable brain drain to the United States after World War II./ 2. An activity requiring great mental concentration resulting in fatigue and exhaustion * /That math exam I took was a regular brain drain./

[brain-storm] To have a discussion among fellow researchers or co-workers on a project in order to find the best solution to a given problem. * /Dr. Watson and his research assistants are brain-storming in the conference room./

[brainstorm] A sudden insight; a stroke of comprehension. * /Listen to me, I've just had a major brainstorm, and I think I found the solution to our problem./

[brain trust] A group of specially trained, highly intelligent experts in a given field. * /Albert Einstein gathered a brain trust around himself at the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies./

[brake] See: RIDE THE BRAKE.

[branch off] To go from something big or important to something smaller or less important; turn aside. * /At the bridge a little road branches off from the highway and follows the river./ * /Martin was trying to study his lesson, but his mind kept branching off onto what girl he should ask to go with him to the dance./

[branch out] To add new interests or activities; begin doing other things also. * /First Jane collected stamps; then she branched out and collected coins, too./ * /John started a television repair shop; when he did well, he branched out and began selling television sets too./

[brand-new] also [bran-new] As new or fresh as when just made and sold by the manufacturer; showing no use or wear. * /He had taken a brand-new car from the dealer's floor and wrecked it./ * /In Uncle Tom's trunk, we found a wedding ring, still in its little satin-lined box, still brand-new./

[brass] See: DOUBLE IN BRASS, GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS.

[brass hat] , 1. A high officer in the army, navy, or air force. * /The brass hats In Washington often discuss important secrets./ 2. Any person who has a high position in business, politics, or other work. * /Mr. Woods, the rich oil man, is a political brass hat./

[brass tacks] See: GET DOWN TO BRASS TACKS.

[brave it out] To endure something difficult or dangerous through to the end; keep on through trouble or danger. * /It was a dangerous ocean crossing in wartime, but captain and crew braved it out./

[brazen it out] To pretend you did nothing wrong; be suspected, accused, or scolded without admitting you did wrong; act as if not guilty. * /The teacher found a stolen pen that the girl had in her desk, but the girl brazened it out; she said someone else must have put it there./

[bread] See: HALF A LOAF is BETTER THAN NONE, KNOW WHICH SIDE ONE'S BREAD IS BUTTERED ON, TAKE THE BREAD OUT OF ONE'S MOUTH.