Idioms 4

Question 1

to be deceived by

Answer 1

to be taken in

to take somebody in

Question 2

to be offended/made angry by

Answer 2

to take exception to

Question 3

to not pay attention

Answer 3

to take no notice of

to not take any notice of

Question 4

to not like something

Answer 4

to not take kindly to

Question 5

to stop and let somebody get off/out of somewhere

Answer 5

to set somebody down

e.g. The bus will set you down outside my house

Question 6

to formally apply for something (e.g. pay rise, expenses, a job)

Answer 6

to put into for something

e.g. I hear you have put in for that job in the accounts department.

Question 7

to save money so that you can use it at a later date

Answer 7

to put (money) by

e.g. Every month we put by 200 pounds so that we have enough for our trip.

Question 8

to say that something is caused by…

Answer 8

to put (something) down to

e.g. The doctors put his ill health down to the fact that he was overweight.

Question 9

to go in the direction of

Answer 9

to make for somewhere

Question 10

to complete a set

Answer 10

to make up a set

e.g. I’m looking for a sixth tea cup to make up a set

Question 11

the time one’s watch has, more common in question form:

“What time is it?”

Answer 11

What time do you make it?

Answer form: to make it 6 o’clock.

Question 12

to make no attempt to hide (often negative) feelings

Answer 12

to make no bones about

e.g. “He hates studying for school and he makes no bones about it”

Question 13

to provide (good) reasons for

Answer 13

to make (out) a (convincing/strong) case for

Question 14

to lose money

Answer 14

to make a loss

Question 15

• it does not make any difference

- I don’t mind

Answer 15

it makes no odds

e.g. It makes no odds whether we run or hide. Either way, they’ll find us.

Question 16

to be good enough to be selected to play for a team

Answer 16

to make the team

Question 17

to stop liking somebody or something that you used to like

Answer 17

to go off somebody/something

e.g. “I’ve gone off horror films. I can’t stand them anymore”

Question 18

to attack

Answer 18

to go for somebody

Question 19

to not be sure if something is good or right

Answer 19

to have misgivings about something/doing something

Question 20

to be annoyed by somebody/something

Answer 20

to have had enough of somebody/something/doing something

Question 21

to complete what you had planned, generally used in negatives

Answer 21

to go through with something

e.g. Given the size of the crowd, I couldn’t go through with it

Question 22

to keep talking about something in such a way that others get bored, impatient or irritated

Answer 22

to go on (and on) about something

Question 23

to make a start at doing something difficult

Answer 23

to go about something/doing something

Question 24

(informal) the chances of something happening have been ruined

Answer 24

to go bang

e.g. and then they discovered that I was tone-deaf, and bang went my chances of becoming a concert pianist

Question 25

to become uncontrollably violent

Answer 25

to go berserk

Question 26

to have been neglected to the point of being in very poor condition (a building) or in a state of complete disorganisation

Answer 26

to go to rack and ruin

to go to the dogs

Question 27

When power/fame/money makes somebody excessively proud and confident

Answer 27

when something goes (straight) to somebody’s head

Question 28

• to be as aggressive or forceful as the person you are arguing with
• to hurt the person you are fighting as much as he or she hurts you

Answer 28

to give as good as you get

e.g. She may look small and timid, but, when she argues, she most certainly gives as good as she gets.

Question 29

to do something as well as you possible can

Answer 29

to give of your best

Question 30

to give somebody the most important facts about something

Answer 30

to give somebody the lowdown on something

Question 31

to do something bad to somebody who has previously done something bad to you/ to get revenge

Answer 31

to get your own back.

e.g. When you consider how his friends had betrayed him, you can’t blame him for wanting to get his own back on them.

Question 32

to be nearly (used for time/age)

Answer 32

to be getting on for

e. g. I have no idea what time it is, but it must be getting on for 3 o’clock
e. g. He must be getting on for 50, though he looks much younger.

Question 33

to be late in paying something

Answer 33

to get behind with

e. g. to get behind with your rent
e. g. to get behind with all the paperwork
e. g. to get behind with your work

Question 34

to persuade somebody to do something by being nice to them

Answer 34

to get round somebody

e.g. I could get round my mother by buying her chocolates.

Question 35

to finally find the time to do something

Answer 35

to get round to doing something

Question 36

to do, most commonly used in question form

“What did you do?”

Answer 36

to get up to

“What did you get up to…?

e.g. What did you get up to this weekend?

Question 37

to finally get the punishment one deserves

Answer 37

to get one’s comeuppance

Question 38

to find a word or phrase very difficult to pronounce

Answer 38

to not be able to get your tongue round

e.g. I gave up learning German because I found it impossible to get my tongue round even the simplest of words

Question 39

to take action and deal with a problem

Answer 39

to get to grips with

e.g. The government hasn’t yet got to grips with the unemployment problem

Question 40

• to start happening

- to start moving

Answer 40

to get underway

e.g. Work on the new underground line has yet to get underway.

Question 41

to find out about something

Answer 41

to get wind of something

Question 42

to become friends and start spending a lot of time with people who are a bad influence on you

Answer 42

to fall in with

e.g. Ever since she had fallen in with Tommy and his gang, her school work had gone downhill.

Question 43

to quarrel with somebody and stop being friends with them

Answer 43

to fall out with somebody

e.g. We fell out with him when he criticised my sister

Question 44

to laugh uncontrollably

Answer 44

to fall about laughing

Question 45

lots of things are going wrong with something

Answer 45

to fall apart at the seams

Question 46

• to fail to continue or be competitive
• to be considered no longer important
• to be considered impossible (promises, ideas, plans)

Answer 46

to fall by the wayside

Question 47

to lose one’s position of power

Answer 47

to fall from power

Question 48

to make a mistake that people make

Answer 48

to fall into the trap of doing something

Question 49

to do something very eagerly

Answer 49

to fall (all) over oneself to do something

Question 50

to get rid of something (rule, law, tax, institution) so that it no longer exists

Answer 50

to do away with

Question 51

to be beneficial to somebody

Answer 51

to do somebody a power of good

e.g. Getting away from the stresses of work would do you a power of good.

Question 52

to sell lots of something

Answer 52

to do a roaring trade in something

e.g. During the heatwave, we did a roaring trade in electric fans.

Question 53

to satisfy yourself with what you have, as opposed to what you want

Answer 53

to make do with something

Question 54

to argue and hit one another

Answer 54

to come to blows

Question 55

to be criticised

Answer 55

to come in for criticism

e.g. The government has come in for severe criticism over its new education policies.

Question 56

to reach a critical stage

Answer 56

to come to a head

e.g. The argument came to a head when neither side would admit that they had made a mistake.

Question 57

the become available for people to buy

Answer 57

to come onto the market

Question 58

to attack somebody (especially with a knife)

Answer 58

to come at somebody

e.g. and then he came at the hero with a knife.

Question 59

when a plan succeeds

Answer 59

it comes off

e.g. it’s an ingenious plan, but I doubt whether it will come off.

Question 60

• to be completely new and different

- to do something that nobody has ever done before

Answer 60

to break new ground