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1 NTC SAmericanIDIOMSD ictionaryThis page intentionally left Most Practical Reference forthe Everyday Expressions ofContemporary American EnglishNTC SAmericanIDIOMSD ictionarythird editionRichard A. Spears, 2000 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the UnitedStates of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of thispublication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a databaseor retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-138988-1 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.

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5 This limitation of lia-bility shall apply to any claim or cause whatsoever whether such claim or cause arises in contract, tortor : abc McGraw-Hill ContentsTo the UserviiTerms and SymbolsixAbout This DictionaryxiDictionary1 Phrase-Finder Index447 Appendix621 McGraw-Hill's Terms of UseThis page intentionally left the UserAll languages have phrases or sentences that cannot be understood liter-ally. Even if you know the meaning of all the words in a phrase and under-stand all the grammar of the phrase completely, the meaning of the phrasemay still be confusing. Many proverbs, informal phrases, and common say-ings offer this kind of problem. A phrase or sentence of this type is saidto be idiomatic. This dictionary is a collection of the idiomatic phrases andsentences that occur frequently in American english .

6 The third editioncontains more than one thousand idiomatic expressions not listed in thesecond edition and a number of new features that provide additional con-venience and the by looking up the complete phrase that you are seeking in the dic-tionary. Each expression is alphabetized under the first word of thephrase, except the words a, an, and the. After the first word, entry headsare alphabetized letter by letter. For example, in so many wordswillbe found in the section dealing with the letter i. Entry phrases are neverinverted or reordered like so many words, in; words, in so many;or many words, in so. Initial articles a, an, and the are not alpha-betized and appear in a different typeface in the entry.

7 In the entryheads, the words someoneor onestand for persons, and somethingstands for things. These and other generic expressions appear in a dif-ferent you do not find the phrase you want, or if you cannot decide exactlywhat the phrase is, look up any major word in the phrase in the Phrase-Finder Index, which begins on page 447. There you will find all thephrases that contain the key word you have looked up. Pick out thephrase you want and look it up in the entry head may have one or more alternate forms. The entry headand its alternates are printed in boldface type, and the alternate formsare preceded by and. Two or more alternate forms are separated bya semicolon (;). of the entry phrases have more than one major sense.

8 Thesesenses are numbered with boldface numbered senses may have additional forms that appearin boldface type, in which case the andand the additional form(s)follow the boldface entry head (together with any alternate forms) is usu-ally followed by a definition or explanation. Explanations are enclosedin angle brackets (< and >), and explain or describe the entry headrather than define it. Definitions take the form of words, phrases, orsentences that are semantic equivalents of the entry head. Alternatedefinitions and restatements of the definitions are separated by asemicolon (;). These additional definitions are usually given to showslight differences in meaning or interpretation. Sometimes an alter-nate definition is given when the vocabulary of the first definition entries include instructions to look up some other phrase.

9 Forexample:scarcer than hen s teethGo to (as) scarce as hen s definition or explanation may be followed by comments in paren-theses. These comments tell about some of the variations of thephrase, explain what it refers to, give other useful information, or indi-cate definitions are preceded by additional information in squarebrackets. This information makes the definition clearer by supplyinginformation about the typical grammatical context in which thephrase is the numbered senses refer only to people or things, butnot both, even though the entry head indicates both someone or some-thing. In such cases, the numeral is followed by [with someone] or [with something]. are introduced by a or a Tand are in italic type.

10 The Tintroduces an example containing two elements that have been trans-posed, such as a particle and the object of a verb. This is typicallyfound with phrasal verbs. entry heads stand for two or more idiomatic expressions. Paren-theses are used to show which parts of the phrase may or may not bepresent. For example: (all) set to do somethingstands for all setto do somethingand set to do s American idioms DictionaryviiiixTerms and Symbols[..] enclose a partial entry that is followed by an instruction about whereto find the whole entry or a comment. For instance, [heart stands still]Go to one sheart stands still.<..> enclose a description of or explanation about an entry head ratherthan a definition. For instance, Finders keepers(, losers weepers).