pick

rank

See: CLOSE RANKS, PULL RANK.

No categories:

Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

'rank' on video

Subscribe to: American Idioms

English Slang

✉

Get site updates @:

See as well

pull rank

[pull rank] {v. phr.}, {slang}, {informal} To assert one's superior position or authority on a person of lower rank as in exacting a privilege or a favor. * /How come […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

rank and file

[rank and file] {n. phr.} Ordinary people; the regular membership of an organization; the enlisted privates in the Army. * /The general usually inspects the rank and file on specific […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

close ranks

[close ranks] {v. phr.} 1. To come close together in a line especially for fighting. * /The soldiers closed ranks and kept the enemy away from the bridge./ 2. To […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

J. De La Bruyere

Marriage, it seems, confines every man to his proper rank. www.english-slang.com

Slang is

"very informal usage in vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid and ephemeral than ordinary language" (Random House Unabridged Dictionary) - learn ~600 slang expressions

An idiom is

an expression "whose meaning is not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements… or from the general grammatical rules of a language"

Recent updates:

George Bernard Shaw

(1856-1950), Irish playwright There is no sincerer love than the love of food.

put to sea

[put to sea] {v. phr.} To start a voyage. * /The captain said the ship would put to sea at six in the morning./ * /In the […]

sewed up

[sewed up] {adj. phr.}, {informal} Won or arranged as you wish; decided. * /They thought they had the game sewed up, but the […]

Mark Twain

(1835-1910) Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.

heart is in the right place

[heart is in the right place] or [have one's heart in the right place] To be kind-hearted, sympathetic or well-meaning; have […]

how come

[how come] {informal} also {nonstandard} [how's come] {interrog.} How does it happen that? Why? * /How come you are late?/ […]