Reading set "Random idiom flashcards set to learn" (Number of items 10)

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cost the Earth

To be very expensive or costly.
Just having a cup of coffee costs the Earth in there. It's ridiculously expensive.
to pay the Earth = to pay a lot of money.
Categories:money verb



leave to one's own devices

Let someone do what they want without helping them or trying to control them (usually passive).
There are four hours of lessons each morning, and in the afternoon students are left to their own devices.
Left to my own devices I wouldn't bother cooking in the evenings.
Categories:verb



party animal

illustration for section: party animal
party animal  {n. phr.}
1. A person who loves parties.
That kid is such a party animal. He takes every opportunity he gets to go to a party.
2. A person who loves to dance, party and drink and also to make the most of a party. Usally ends up drunk on someone's lawn. But can be some what an Attention whore.
- Look at that kid dancing! — I know, he is such a party animal
Categories:noun



pie-eyed

pie-eyed  {adj.phr.}  {informal}
Said about someone very drunk.
I am completely pie-eyed.
Compare: cockeyed
Categories:adjective informal



sad sack

sad sack  {n. phr.}  {informal}
An inept person who makes mistakes despite good intentions.



sure as shooting

sure as shooting  {adv. phr.} or  {adv. phr.}
Certainly, for certain, for sure, sure, surely, sure enough.
 {adv. phr.}
Definitely or positively.
he'll win sure as shooting.
 {adj. phr.}
Absolutely certain.
it is sure as shooting that they will come.
it is sure as shooting that they were on the bus.
the date for the invasion is sure as shooting.
Categories:adjective adverb doubt



to foul one's own nest

To compromise unintentionally one's own interests by sharing private information unnecessarily.
With he constant complaints about he job, she's only fouling her own nest.
Transfers a bird's soiling in its nest to human behavior.
Categories:verb



talk to the hand

illustration for section: talk to the hand
talk to the hand or  {slang} talk to da hand  {v. phr.}  {informal}
('cause the face ain't listening)
(With outstretched vertical palm) Shut up — I've no interest in hearing what you've got to say.
Per the source, mentioned below, the idiom appeared along with some other short phrases in the USA in the 1990s.
Cite:
"It didn't cross the Atlantic right away and the first reference outside the USA is in a piece by Oliver Bennett in The Times, May 1998. In this he recounts a trip to San Francisco and explains some local idioms:
"A contemporary favourite, if you don't like what somebody is saying (a traffic warden, say) is to turn a palm forward and yell: 'Talk to the hand.'"
"It seems it wasn't a universal favourite in the USA by then. That same month the Syracuse Herald Journal (New York) reported a vox pop piece that offered the opinion:
I don't know about you, but if I hear someone say 'talk to the hand' again I will strangle them with their own shoelaces."
Categories:informal slang verb




attention whore

illustration for section: attention whore
attention whore  {n. phr.}  {informal}
Label given to any person who craves attention to such an extent that they will do anything to receive it. The type of attention (negative or positive) does not matter.
You're such a GD attention whore!
See also: party animal
Categories:informal noun