Login form
Free Download
Download miễn phí tài liệu học TOEIC, TOEFL iBT, IELTS, từ vựng, ngữ pháp, phát âm,...Hãy đăng ký thành viên hoặc đăng nhập để bắt đầu!
Download miễn phí tài liệu học TOEIC, TOEFL iBT, IELTS, từ vựng, ngữ pháp, phát âm,...Hãy đăng ký thành viên hoặc đăng nhập để bắt đầu!
A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
Meaning
The sad proverbial truth that friends become friendlier when they want something from you.
Origin
From Ennuis: 'Amicu certus in re incerta cernitur.'. Translated from the Latin as 'A sure friend is known when in difficulty.'.
A BED OF ROSES
Meaning
A pleasant or easy situation.
Origin
From Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd To His Love.
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shphers feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves and myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lines slippers for the cold,
Fair lines slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
A BEE IN YOUR BONNET
Meaning
Preoccupied or obsessed with an idea.
Origin
Thought to have come from Robert Herrick's poem, 'Mad Maid's Song', 1648.
Ah! woe is me, woe, woe is me!
Alack and well-a-day!
For pity, sir, find out that bee
Which bore my love away.
I'll seek him in your bonnet brave,
I'll seek him in your eyes;
Nay, now I think they've made his grave
I' th' bed of strawberries.
A BIRD IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUSH
Meaning
It's better to have something small and reliable than something big and risky.
Origin
The same sentiment comes from the Bible, Old Testament, Ecclesiastes ix - A living dog is better than a dead lion.
A BIT OF A DO
Meaning
A party
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
Meaning
Something or someone that returns after an absence.
Origin
Coined by radio DJs when playing old records.
A BLOT ON THE LANDSCAPE
Meaning
Something that spoils the view or ruins a previously comfortable situation.
Origin
T.E. Lawrence used it in a letter in 1912. Tom Sharpe published a novel - 'Blott on the Landscape' in 1975.
A BOLT FROM THE BLUE
Meaning
A surprise.
Origin
Like a bolt of lightening from a blue sky.
A BUN IN THE OVEN
Meaning
Pregnant - Oven = womb, baby = bun
A BUNCH OF FIVES
Meaning
A fist or a punch.
Origin
The fives are the five fingers.
A BUNNY BOILER
Meaning
An obsessive and dangerous female, in pursuit of a lover who has spurned her.
Origin
From the 1987 film Fatal Attraction. The plot concerns a woman scorned, played by Glenn Close, who obsessively pursues her ex lover, played by Michael Douglas. The phrase comes from the plot device where the woman boils the man's daughter's pet rabbit.
A CHRISTMAS BOX
Meaning
A gift given at Christmas.
Origin
Churches used to collect money in boxes for distribution to the poor. This happened the day after Christmas Day and gave Boxing Day its name.
A DEAD RINGER
Meaning
An exact duplicate.
Origin
A ringer is a horse substituted for another to defraud the bookies. Dead here means exact rather than lifeless. The Victorian practise of fitting wires and bells into coffins to allow people who were buried alive to call for rescue is unrelated. Such devices certainly did exist but weren't the source of the phrase.
A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH
Meaning
Someone of basically good character but lacking social graces.
Origin
Sometimes expressed just as 'rough diamond'. Used in John Fletcher's 'A Wife for a Month':
She is very honest, and will be as hard to cut as a rough diamond.
A DROP IN THE BUCKET
Meaning
A small amount of a plentiful commodity.
Origin
From the Bible, Isaiah 40:15. 'Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.'
A FACE LIKE A BULLDOG CHEWING A WASP
Meaning
An ugly face.
A FACE LIKE THE BACK OF A BUS
Meaning
An ugly face.
A FATE WORSE THAN DEATH
Meaning
Rape or loss of virginity.
Origin
Probably originated in Victorian England and attested to the belief that a dishonoured woman was better off dead. Still used but ironically of late. Edgar Rice Burroughs used it in his Tarzan of the Apes, 1914. 'The ape ... bearing Jane Porter away toward a fate a thousand times worse than death'.
A FOOL'S PARADISE
Meaning
A vain hope.
Origin
From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
Nurse Now, afore God, I am so vexed, that every part about
me quivers. Scurvy knave! Pray you, sir, a word:
and as I told you, my young lady bade me inquire you
out; what she bade me say, I will keep to myself:
but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into
a fool's paradise, as they say, it were a very gross
kind of behavior, as they say: for the gentlewoman
is young; and, therefore, if you should deal double
with her, truly it were an ill thing to be offered
to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing.
A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
Meaning
The sad proverbial truth that friends become friendlier when they want something from you.
Origin
From Ennuis: 'Amicu certus in re incerta cernitur.'. Translated from the Latin as 'A sure friend is known when in difficulty.'.
A FROG IN THE THROAT
Meaning
Suffering from temporary hoarseness - needing to clear the throat.
Origin
From the Old English 'frogga', meaning hoarseness.
A GAME OF TWO HALVES
Meaning
Football commentator's cliche
A HARD MAN IS GOOD TO FIND
Meaning
Play on 'a good man is hard to find'.
Origin
Mae West line.
A KNEE JERK REACTION
Meaning
An automatic response to something.
Origin
From the tendency of the knee to jerk involuntarily when hit sharply.
A KNOCK BACK
Meaning
A reversal of fortune or disappointment. Also used in a verb form as 'to knock back', meaning to refuse an offer.
Origin
Australian origin.
A LABOUR OF LOVE
Meaning
Work undertaken for the pleasure of it or for the benefit of a loved one.
Origin
From the Bible - 'Your worke of faith and labour of love'
A LAUGHING STOCK
Meaning
An object of derision.
Origin
From Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor.
SIR HUGH EVANS [Aside to DOCTOR CAIUS] Pray you let us not be
laughing-stocks to other men's humours; I desire you
in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.
A LEOPARD CANNOT CHANGE ITS SPOTS
Meaning
The notion that things cannot change their inate nature.
Origin
From the Bible. Jeremiah 13:23. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
A LICK AND A PROMISE
Meaning
A cursory effort. An allusion to the perfunctory washing performed by children.
A Little Knowledge Is A Dangerous Thing
Meaning
A small amount of knowledge can cause people to think they are more expert than they are and consequently make unwise choices.
Origin
A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) - An Essay on Criticism .
A Load Of Codswallop
Meaning
Nonsense.
Origin
Codswallop was an old English type of lemonade sold by a Mr. Codd in a traditional beer bottle and thus disdained by beer drinkers. Wallop is a slang term for beer.
A Man After My Own Heart
Meaning
A kindred spirit - someone I can agree with.
Origin
From The Bible. Samuel 13:14. But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.
A Man's Got To Do What A Man's Got To Do
Meaning
Origin
Cliche, often spoken by cowboy characters in B feature westerns.
A Molotov Cocktail
Meaning
A homemade petrol bomb, usually thrown.
Origin
Named after Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Affairs Minister - 1939.
A Moveable Feast
Meaning
Feast days that have a date that moves from year to year.
Origin
Originated as a reference to the various Christian events that have a variable date from year to year. The date of Easter Day for instance follows these rather complex rules:
The first Sunday following the first ecclesiastical full moon (which is the 14th day of an astronomical new moon) that occurs on or after the day of the vernal equinox (March 21st).
Ernest Hemingway picked up the notion in his writing - "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast."
A Nation Of Shopkeepers
Meaning
The English.
Origin
Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, 1776, wrote 'To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight appear a project altogether unfit for a nation of shopkeepers; but extremely fit for a nation that is governed by shopkeepers. Napoleon I, who was familiar with Smith's work, is reported as later using the phrase. Josiah Tucker, the Dean of Gloucester, preceded them both by referring to England as a shopkeeping nation.
A Picture Paints A Thousand Words
Meaning
A picture tells a story as well as a large amount of descriptive text.
Origin
The original quotation is 'One picture is worth ten thousand words', Frederick R. Barnard in Printer's Ink, 8 Dec 1921 retelling a Chinese proverb.
A Place For Everything And Everything In Its Place
Meaning
The notion that everything should have a place to be stored in and that it should be tidily returned there when not in use.
Origin
Samuel Smiles (1812-1904) in Thrift. 'A place for everything, and everything in its place.'
A Plague On Both Your Houses
Meaning
Frustrated curse on both sides of an argument.
Origin
From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
MERCUTIO I am hurt.
A plague o' both your houses! I am sped.
Is he gone, and hath nothing?
Shakespeare was fond of the word plague and used it hundreds of times in the plays. Surprisingly, as the Bible is the other most promiment source of phrases that have entered the English language, there isn't a single reference to it in his plays..
A Priori
Meaning
'From the previous'.
Origin
Latin.
Rose By Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet
Meaning
A suggestion that a thing is what it is, not what it is called.
Origin
From Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Wally Argus, a correspondent from Alabama, reports that the reference was a side-swipe that the Globe Theatre's rival the Rose Theatre which had less than effective sanitary arrangements.