Metaphors cycle 3 Flashcards
(34 cards)
The truth (as indiscreetly revealed)
Out of the mouths of babes
To be excessively naive
To the babes in the wood
To be left with an unwanted responsibility
To be left holding the baby
To discard a major benefit in the course of obtaining a small advantage
To throw out the baby with the bathwater
Someone who wants to exercise control
A backseat driver
A very generous person
So-and-so would give the shirt off his back
Exceedingly difficult
Back-breaking
In a way which deliberately conceals the thrust from someone
Behind someone’s back
1- It was stolen 2-It was leaked to me (information)
It fell off the back of a truck
Not a priority at the moment
Something is on the back burner
(La goutte qui fait déborder le vase)
The straw which broke the camel’s back
1- secretly or unofficially 2-Through lack of opposition
Through the back door
To have a faith and give support to a project which proves or will prove to be unsuccessful
To back the wrong horse
To put someone in a position from which escape is difficult
To back someone into a corner
To have to start all over again
to be back to scratch
To be completely rejected or to leave someone cold
to be like water off a duck’s back
To criticize each other in an unfriendly manner
To engage in back biting
To know more of what is going on than what people think
To have eyes at the back of one’s head
Immodestly to congratulate oneself
To pat oneself on the back
To repair something
To put something back in its feet
To go back in time, to have another opportunity at something thought lost
To turn back the clock
Chief strength or character
Backbone
To be counterproductive, to have the opposite effect than what was hoped
To backfire
To go to great trouble to accommodate another person’s wishes
To bend over backward to do something
