IDIOMS/PHRASES
502. (2) show white flag : a sign that   510. (3) By the skin of your teeth : If     l  He strained every nerve to
     you accept defeat and wish to            you do something by the skin of           snatch victory from defeat.
     stop fighting                            your teeth, you only just manage          The best option is worked very
  l The soldiers laid down their guns         to do it.                                 hard
     and walked towards the enemy          l He escaped defeat by the skin         519. (3) Gerrymander (Verb) : to
     camp, carrying a white flag.             of his teeth.                             change the size and borders of
     The best option is surrendered           The best option is by the nar-            an area for voting in order to give
503. (4) to cut one short : to inter-         rowest margin.                            an unfair advantage to one party
     rupt one                            511. (4) Swan song : the last piece of         in an election
  l It is bad to cut one short at a           work produced.                         l The city had been gerry man-
     meeting.                              l The building turned out to be the          dered so that the party might re-
     The best option is to interrupt          swan song of Victorian architec-          tain the control.
     one                                      ture                                      The best option is in a manipu-
504. (1) all our might and main : with        The best option is last perfor-           lative and unfair way.
     great strength, energy or power.         mance                                520. (1) Bring the house down : to
  l The huge warrior, with all his       512. (2) a wild goose chase : a search         make everyone laugh or cheer
     might and main, could not break          for something that is impossible       l The clown sang a duet with the
     his way through the castle gates.        for you to find or that does not          talking horse, which brought the
     The best option is full force            exist, that makes you waste a lot         house down.
                                              of time.                                  The best option is made the au-
505. (2) Nail your colours to the
                                           l I wasted all afternoon on a wild           dience applaud enthusiastically.
     mast : to say publicly and firmly
     what you believe or who you sup-         goose chase.                         521. (2) Salt of the earth : a very good
     port.                                    The best option is a foolish and          and honest person that you can
  l They nailed their colours to the
                                              useless enterprise                        always depend on.
     mask of youth revolt.               513. (1) All moonshine : silly talk; non-   l Farmers are described as the salt
     The best option is refused to            sense.                                    of the earth
     climb down                            l That’s just moonshine ! I don’t            The best option is good, honest
506. (2) batten down the hatches : to         believe a word.                           and ideal.
     prepare yourself for a period of         The best option is nonsense          522. (1) alpha and omega : the first
     difficulty or trouble.              514. (4) dot your i’s and cross your           and the last ; the most important
  l A natural tendency in times of re-
                                              t’s : to pay attention to the small       part
     cession is to batten down the            details when you are finishing a       l He was forced to learn the alpha
     hatches and think about our own          task                                      and omega of corporate law in
     needs.                                l The negotiations are nearly fin-           order to talk even to the lawyers.
     The best option is prepare for a         ished, but we still have to dot           The best option is beginning and
     difficult situation.                     the i’s and cross the t’s.                end.
507. (2) Fly/go off at tangent : to           The best option is be detailed and   523. (3) pin money : a small amount
     suddenly start saying or doing           exact                                     of money, especially when this is
     something that does not seem to     515. (3) down in the dumps : feeling           used for buying things you want
     be connected to what has gone            unhappy                                   rather than things that you need.
     before.                               l He’d been down in the dumps             l She earns a little pin money do-
  l He never sticks to the point but          since there was a theft at his            ing ironing for other people.
     keeps going off at a tangent             place.                                    The best option is a small amount
     The best option is starts discuss-       The best option is sad and de-            of money.
     ing something irrelevant.                pressed                              524. (3) Be going places : to be get-
508. (3) be at equal speed : to advance  516. (3) turn up one’s nose : to re-           ting more and more successful
     at the same rate as someone/             gard something with scorn/ con-           in your life or career.
     something                                tempt
                                                                                     l Mary is a talented writer; she’s
  l You’re running so fast that I can-     l They turned their noses up at
                                                                                        definitely going places.
     not be at equal speed with you.          the only hotel that was available.
                                                                                        The best option is talented and
     The best option is keep up with.         The best option is treated my             successful.
509. (3) Bury the hatchet : to stop           offer with contempt
                                                                                   525. (2) pull no punches : to deal
     being unfriendly and become         517. (4) hard and fast : that cannot
                                                                                        with something honestly without
     friends again.                           be changed in any circumstances
                                                                                        hiding anything
  l After not speaking to each other       l This situation isn’t hard and fast.
                                                                                     l The doctor pulled no punches
     for years, the two brothers de-          The best option is that cannot            but telling us the truth.
     cided to bury the hatchet.               be altered
                                                                                        The best option is speaks frank-
     The best option is forget the quar- 518. (1) strain every nerve : to try as        ly
     rels.                                    hard as you can to do something
                                                        SEE–771