Name: Bong Wei Khang

Semester 1: 6BF1
Date: 15th June 2018
Assignment: Learn a word a Day
Find idioms.
No. Idioms Meaning
1. Alive and kicking To be well and healthy
-My aunt is ninety years old and she is very much alive and
kicking.
2. At death's door Very near death
-The sales manager was at death's door after his heart
attack.
3. Black out To lose consciousness, to faint, to pass out
-The football player blacked out after being hit by the other
player.
4. Show of hands Raising hands to vote about something.
-With a show of hands, who would prefer to have longer
working days but a shorter working week?
5. Learn (something) by To memorise something so well, that it can be written or
heart / off by heart recited without thinking.
-I can’t believe you learnt the whole Macbeth play by heart!
Well done!
-She learnt all the compositions by Beethoven off by heart!
6. From the old school / Holding attitudes or ideas that were popular and important
of the old school in the past, but which are no longer considered relevant or
in-line with modern trends.
-She was a teacher of the old school and believed in strict
discipline.
-My grandmother is from the old school, she made her
children make their own lunches and walk to school.
7. The school of hard Learning through difficult experiences in life, as opposed to
knocks a formal, classroom education.
-I wasn’t able to go to college, but I learnt a lot in the
school of hard knocks, it taught me a lot about life.
8. Cut someone some Avoid treating someone strictly or severely
slack -Reynaldo has been on the job for only two weeks. It’s
natural that he would make mistakes. Cut him some slack.
9. Big picture A wide perspective; a broad view of something
- Don’t get bogged down in the details. Keep the big picture
in mind.
10. Too many chiefs and Everyone wants to be a leader, and no one wants to do the
not enough Indians actual work.
- Everyone wanted credit for the project and tried to take on
a supervisory role. So the project never got done. It was too
many chiefs and not enough Indians.