Clue Body part Idiomatic expression with body part

Meaning of the idiomatic expression

A bed has this __________ to do something standing

on one’s _____

to be able to do

something very easily

A __________ has these eyes to turn a blind eye to

something

to ignore something/

pretend not to see it

A cornfield has these __________ to keep one’s _____ to the

ground

to listen hoping to get

advanced warning

__________ has this nose to keep one’s nose clean to stay out of trouble

A river has this __________ to shoot one’s _____ off to talk too much, to boast

A __________ has this lip to pay someone lip

service

to support someone or

something by words but

not by actions

A shoe has this __________ to set _____ to wagging to do something which

causes gossip

A __________ has this neck to be neck and neck to be so close that one

can’t determine who the

leader

Foot head fingers mouth tongue shoe clock potato heel jar shoulder bottle table earscheese 

A road has this __________ to give (get) the

cold _____

to ignore (or be

ignored by)

someone

A __________ has

these

hands to live hand to mouth to have just enough

money to live on

A glove has this __________ to have a _____ in

every pie

to be involved in

many activities

A __________ has this leg to pay an arm and a

leg for something

to pay too much

money for something

A mountain has this __________ to _____ the bill for

something

to pay for something

A __________ has this toe to tread on

someone’s toes

to insult or offend

someone

A shoe has this __________ to fall head over _____

in love

to be very much in

love with someone

Foot head fingers mouth tongue shoe clock potato heel jar shoulder bottle table ears cheese

1) How could you go to visit Rachel when her husband was out of town? You’ve really set tongues to wagging. By tomorrow, everyone in the office is going to know.

2) Ever since Bill found out that I visited his wife when he was out of town, he’s been giving me the cold shoulder. I tried to tell him that nothing happened, but he won’t even talk to me.

3) Ever since Jim Anderson lost his job, his family has been living from hand to mouth.

4) I haven’t heard who won the tender yet, but they say it’s neck and neck between us and Olympic Media Corp.

5) Oh come on! Is that all? Hell, I could do that standing on my head.

6) Look, you caused this whole problem. If you hadn’t shot off your mouth about getting a raise, then no one would have been the wiser. Now everyone knows and everyone’s asking the boss for a raise.

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Phraseological unit Phraseological unit

a reproduced and idiomatic (non-motivated) or partially motivated unit built up according to the model of free word-groups (or sentences) and semantically and syntactically brought into correlation with words.

Word-groups that can not be made in the process of speech

A.V. Koonin

Both words and phraseological units are ready-made units, names for things, objects, qualities of reality.

Unlike words proper, however, phraseological units are word groups consisting of two or more words whose combination is integrated as a unit with a specialized meaning of the whole.

For example, the vocabulary units table, wall, bus, air-taxi are words denoting various objects of reality;

the vocabulary units black frost, red tape are phraseological units: each is a word group with a specialized meaning of the whole, namely black frost is frost without snow or rime, red tape denotes bureaucratic methods.

A feature proper both to free phrases and phraseological units is the divisibility (раздельнооформленность) of their structure, i.e. they consist of separate structural elements.

This fact stands them in opposition to words as structurally integral (цельнооформленные) units

The principal difference between phraseological units and free word-groups manifests itself in the structural invariability of the former. The structural invariability suggests no (or rather limited) substitutions of components.

The semantic criterion is of great help in stating the semantic difference/similarity between free word-groups and phraseological units, and between phraseological units and words

The meaning in phraseological units is created by mutualinteraction of elements and conveys a single concept. The actualmeaning of a phraseological unit is figurative (transferred) and isopposed to the literal meaning of a word-combination from which it isderived.

The transference of the initial word-group can be based on simile, metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche. The degree of transference varies and may affect either the whole unit or only one of itsconstituents, cf.: to skate on thin ice — 'to take risks'; the small hours —'the early hours of the morning'.

In a free phrase the semantic correlative ties are fundamentally different. The meaning in a word-group is based on the combined meaning of the words constituting its structure. Each element in a word-combination has a much greater semantic independence and stands for a separate concept, e.g. to cut bread, to cut cheese, to eat bread. Every word in a free phrase can form additional syntactic ties with other words outside the expression retaining its individual meaning.

The semantic unity, however, makes phraseological units similarto words. The semantic similarity between the two is proved by the fact that, for instance, kick the bucket whose meaning is understood as awhole and not related to the meaning of individual words can bereplaced within context by the word to die, the phraseological unit in abrown study — by the word gloomy.

The syntactic criterion reveals the close ties between single words and phraseological units as well as free word-groups.

Like words (as well as word-combinations), phraseological units may have different syntactic functions in the sentence,

e.g. the subject (narrow escape, first night, baker's dozen), the predicate (to have a good mind, to play Russian roulette, to

make a virtue of necessity), an attribute (high and mighty, quick on the trigger, as ugly as

sin), an adverbial (in full swing, on second thoughts, off the record). In accordance with the function they perform in the sentence

phraseological units can be classified into: substantive, verbal, adjectival, adverbial, interjectional.

Like free word-groups phraseological units can be divided into coordinative (e.g. the life and soul of something, free and easy, neck and crop) and subordinative (e.g. long in the tooth, a big fish in a little pond, the villain of the piece).

the characteristic features of phraseological units are: ready-made reproduction, structural divisibility, morphological stability, permanence of lexical composition, semantic unity, syntactic fixity

According to the degree of idiomaticity phraseological units can be classified into three big groups:

phraseological fusions (сращения), phraseological unities (единства) phraseological collocations (сочетания).

Phraseological fusions are completely non-motivated word-groups, e.g. as mad as a hatter — “utterly mad”; white elephant — “an expensive but useless thing”.

Phraseological unities are partially non-motivated as their meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological unit, e. g. to bend the knee — “to submit to a stronger force, to obey submissively”; to wash one's dirty linen in public — “to discuss or make public one's quarrels”.

Phraseological collocations are not only motivated but contain one component used in its direct meaning, while the other is used metaphorically, e.g. to meet the requirements, to attain success.

In this group of phraseological units some substitutions are possible which do not destroy the meaning of the metaphoric element, e.g. to meet the needs, to meet the demand, to meet the necessity; to have success, to lose success. These substitutions are not synonymical and the meaning of the whole changes, while the meaning of the verb meet and the noun success are kept intact.

Using Idiomatic Expressions to Using Idiomatic Expressions to Describe Difficult Situations Describe Difficult Situations

bedevileddeep blue searaging bull rock damnedadvancing armyhard place devilbottomless pithigh wall deadstone wallinsurmountable mountain 

I’ve been promising my wife to help her rearrange the furniture for weeks. Yesterday, she made me promise to help her this weekend. Today, however, my boss called and said he needed me to come into work this weekend. If I go into work, my wife will hang me out to dry and thereafter make my life hell. If I refuse to go into work, my boss will hold it against me and will relish reminding me of this the next time I’m up for a promotion or salary raise. I’m definitely stuck between a(an)(the) __________ and a(an)(the) __________!

To tell you the truth, I hate my mother-in-law. She’s the devil incarnate. Every time she comes over to see her daughter, she makes my life hell on earth. Unfortunately, if I tell my mother-in-law to stay home, my wife will be angry with me and I’ll find myself sleeping on the couch. If I don’t say anything, then maybe one of these days I’m going to blow up at her and say or do something that I’ll regret for the rest of my life. Talk about finding yourself between a(an)(the) __________ and a(an)(the) __________!

Verbs

(alphabetically

listed)

№ of Phrasal

Verbs

Verbs

(by number of

phrasal verbs)

№ of Phrasal

Verbs

call 5 get 9

check 3 put 6

drop 4 turn 6

get 9 call 5

look 5 look 5

put 6 take 5

run 3 drop 4

take 5 check 3

throw 3 run 3

turn 6 throw 3

Feeling _____ (sad)  _____ around the gills (nauseous)  Tickled _____ (happy)  Seeing _____ (extremely angry)  _____-hearted (evil or wicked)  A _____ knight (a savior)  Once in a _____ moon (occasionally but not often)  _____ thumb (natural ability to grow plants successfully)  Paint the town _____ (to go out and enjoy oneself in a lively, noisy and often drunken way  A _____ streak (a tendency towards cowardice) In the _____ (feeling fit & healthy)  Till one is _____ in the face (to do something repeatedly but without success)  _____-letter day (a memorable day because of something important which happened)  _____ with envy (extremely envious) _____ mark (indication of disapproval)  _____ bag (to bring one’s meal with them) Out of the _____ (without warning)  

Blue Red Green Yellow White Black Brown Pink

According to the way they formAccording to the way they form

To link upGranny farm; As old as the hillsA sad sack, culture vultureBy hook and by crookStress and strainHear! Hear!Odds and endsIn brown studyTo have butterflies in the stomachThe winds of change