I'm sure that each of you, no matter how long you've been learning English, came across idioms and expressions that sound either completely ridiculous or at least weird.
On the other hand, I have to admit that this is one of the things in English language that I'm never bored with. The peculiar and very often illogical grammatical rules (or usually no rules at all) make the whole process of learning more interesting and exciting. This is what makes English so vivid and various. In my case it's a love-hate relationship and I'm constantly, repeatedly trying to face the challenge. How about you?
Today, let's get a closer look at a tiny part of expressions presenting four different emotions:
excitement, frustration, fear and surprise.
EXCITEMENT
To be on the edge of one's seat
When something keeps you
on the edge of your seat, it's very exciting and you want to know what is going
to happen next.
E.g. The movie had me on the edge of my seat right from the beginning.
A nail biter
A nail-biting event
makes you feel very nervous, usually because you are waiting for something
important to happen. It the case of a movie, you really want to see what
happens next.
E.g. That film was a real nail biter.
..or when there's absolutely no excitement whatsoever:
To be as exciting as watching paint dry
Something that is
very, very boring can be described as about as exciting as watching paint dry.
E.g. Her performance was as exciting as watching paint dry.
Something is like watching grass grow
Just like the
expression above, this is used to describe something that is very
uninteresting.
E.g. Sitting there and listening to him was like watching grass grow.
FRUSTRATION
For crying out loud!
For goodness sake!
For heaven's sake!
To do a slow burn
(American & Australian informal)
to have a feeling of anger that gradually increases.
E.g. As he heard more about the plan to develop the area for industrial use he started doing a slow burn.
To champ at the bit
To
show impatience or frustration when delayed.
E.g. The dogs were champing at the bit to begin the hunt.
There are some other starting with the letter 'F', but obviously we all know it quite well ;)
FEAR
To make someone’s hair stand on end
to cause someone to be very frightened.
To make someone’s blood run cold
to shock or horrify someone.
To scare the pants off someone (slang)
to frighten someone very badly.
To scare someone out of their wits/ senses
to frighten someone badly, suddenly or both.
To frighten/ scare the hell out of
someone
to make someone feel very frightened.
To give someone the creeps
to make you feel frightened or nervous ; to
cause someone to feel dislike or disgust.
SURPRISE
To give sb the fish eye
E.g. She turned around and gave
me the fish eye, obviously surprised and not knowing why exactly I had said
that.
To knock over with a feather
E.g. He was so surprised you could have knocked him
over with a feather!
eyes on stalks
E.g. The child's eyes were on stalks as he watch the magician's performance.
jaw drops
E.g. When the prize was announced, the winner's jaw dropped.
knock your socks off
E.g. The magnitude of the project will knock the socks off everyone in the office.
And maaaany other expressions and idioms which I'm obviously unable to present here, so forvige me my random choice and if you like go here to read more about it :) Enjoy!
source: google images
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