#idioms

***🔘***POUND OF FLESH

*▪️a (figuratively) painful payment of a debt.*

1. When we fell behind in our mortgage and asked the
   bank to work out a different payment schedule, they
   refused and took possession of our house. They got
   their pound of flesh.

2. You’ve been annoying me for days about the ten
   dollars I owe you, but I’m afraid I don’t have the money right now. You’ll have to wait for your pound of flesh.

*▪️The expression originates from Shakespeare’s play The
Merchant of Venice in which Antonio borrows money from
Shylock, the Jewish money lender, promising to pay it back
when his ships arrive. When Antonio learns that his ships
have sunk at sea, Shylock demands payment in the form of one pound of Antonio’s flesh*.

#idioms

***⚫️***ON THE BACK BURNER, PUT (SOMETHING)
*▪️to decrease the amount of energy spent on some
activity; to delay or postpone action on some
activity.*

🔘Examples :

1. The boss isn’t sure he wants to pursue that new project right now. I think it’s on the back burner until the current project is finished.

2. Because of the country’s debt problems, the government has had to put its plans to expand the national medical program on the back burner.

*▪️The expression on the back burner comes from cooking on a standard stove, which has four burners, two in front and two in back. The burners in front are used for immediate cooking, while the ones in back are often used for simmering or keeping things warm. To move something to the front burner means to make some project highest priority.*

#idioms

***⚫️***NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT

*▪️ordinary; so-so; not especially good or important.*

🔘Examples :

1. Tom’s parents wanted to know how he liked the
   school. Tom said the school was all right, but it was
   nothing to write home about.

2. When we asked them about their trip, they said they
   couldn’t complain about it but the hotel was nothing
   to write home about.

***▪️***Antonyms: something to crow about; a feather in one’s cap.
*▪️The expression originates from the idea that if one were
writing a letter to one’s family, the person or thing or event
in question is so ordinary or insignificant that one wouldn’t
even mention it in the letter*.

*▶️ PLAY 🐾***

#Phrasal_Verb

💠 Breeze through sth
{slightly informal}

💫 To succeed in something [e.g. exam] very easily

🔰 Ex:- The exam won't be a problem for her - she'll just breeze through it.

#idioms

*🔘TILT AT WINDMILLS*

*➖to fight against impossible odds in an attempt to
do good
▪️Don’t waste your time and energy trying to change a
situation that cannot be changed. The bureaucracy is
too big to fight. You’ll just be tilting at wind*

▪️I’ve always been one to try to help the helpless, even when I know I have little chance of success fighting against the powerful. I guess I’ll always tilt
at windmills.

▪️The expression originates from Miguel de Cervantes’s novel
Don Quixote, in which Quixote comes upon several windmills
and, thinking that they are giants, tries to defeat them in
battle by tilting at them (stabbing while running or riding past) with his lance (long spear).

#idioms

***?***Throw/put somebody off the scent

? to give someone false information to prevent them from catching you or discovering something.

?Was he trying to put me off the scent because I had come too close to the truth?

#Thesaurus
#Fwytm

*?Fire*

? flames that burn in an uncontrolled way and destroy or damage things.

?In April, a fire at the school destroyed the science block.

*?Flames*

*?the bright parts of a fire that you see burning in the air.*

?The flames from the burning building were lighting up the night sky.

*?Blaze (written)*

? a large and dangerous fire – used especially in news reports.
?Firemen fought to keep the blaze under control.

*?Inferno (written)*

*?an extremely large and dangerous fire which is out of control – used especially in news reports.*

?The entire building was on fire and hundreds of people were trapped in the inferno.

*?Conflagration (formal*)

*?a very large fire that destroys a lot of buildings, trees etc.*

?The conflagration spread rapidly through the old town.