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a pretty pass

a pretty pass {n. phr.}

An unfortunate condition; a critical state.

While the boss was away, things at the company had come to a pretty pass.

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Source: A Dictionary of American Idioms

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come to pass

[come to pass] {v. phr.}, {literary} To happen; occur. * /Strange things come to pass in troubled times./ * /It came to pass that the jailer visited him by night./ […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

sitting pretty

[sitting pretty] {adj.}, {slang} To be in a lucky position. * /The new library is sitting pretty because a wealthy woman gave it $10,000 worth of reference books./ * /Mr. […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

pass

[pass] See: [BRING TO PASS], [COME TO PASS], [FORWARD PASS], [JUMP PASS], [SCREEN PASS]. A Dictionary of American Idioms

pass over

[pass over] or [pass by] {v.} To give no attention to; not notice; ignore. * /I can pass over the disorderliness of the troops, but their disobedience is serious./ * […] A Dictionary of American Idioms

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"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 ~1500 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"

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