Winning English - Mastering Idioms, Slang, and References
Blow off steam • Waste not, want not • Speak of the devil • Just in time • Stir crazy • Cooped up • Brighter/darker days
Today I have a collection of idioms and slang words that I encountered in just the last few days, both in personal conversation and in movies. They’re everywhere!
After a stressful year, you decide to get together with a few friends to blow off some steam. You agree to meet for appetizers and drinks - properly physically distanced, of course!
The food and drinks arrive at the table, but one of your friends hasn’t arrived yet. You’re not surprised because he’s always late. But now you have to decide whether to eat his portion of the food.
You tell your other friends, “We should just eat this. Waste not, want not, after all.”
Just then, your friends finally arrives. “Well, speak of the devil!” you say. You’re just in time.”
“To blow off steam” means to do something to relieve emotional stress. In this case, getting together with friends helped this group to relax. Sometimes people who are very stressed will get angry and yell. If you want to forgive the person, you might say, “Well, he was just blowing off some steam.” This phrase comes from steam train engines and water boilers. Both of these machines heat water to very high temperatures. A special valve, called a relief valve, keeps the machines from exploding by releasing excess steam. It “blows off” extra steam.
By the way, there’s a similar slang word which is “to blow off”, without the word steam. This means to deliberately not arrive for an event. Suppose the friend who was late never arrived. The rest of the friends might think, “Well, I guess he decided to blow us off.”
“Waste not, want not” is a commonly used saying. It encourages people to save resources today for a time when they might really need them. I recently heard this saying used in a movie in a creepy way.
“Speak of the devil” is a shortened form of a saying, “Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.” Hundreds of years ago, people worried that if you spoke the devil’s name, he would actually appear before you. But today, the phrase is commonly said when someone arrives soon after you mention her or him. It can also be used for times when something happens soon after it has been discussed. Often this saying is used in a humorous way. For example, in the above example, by saying “speak of the devil”, the group is noting the friend’s sudden appearance and hinting at how he is always late.
To be “just in time” means that you are arriving at the last possible moment for an event.
I don’t tend to write about news events in Winning English, but today I’ll make an exception. As everyone knows, this has been a rough year. Thanks to the coronavirus, many of us are starting to go a bit stir crazy. That’s not a surprise. Many of us have been cooped up for months now. But with vaccines starting to be distributed, brighter days could be ahead!
“To go crazy” means to become insane, to lose your mind. “To go stir crazy” means to go crazy because you are trapped in one location. This phrase dates from the 19th century, when the word “the stir” became a slang word for prison. It’s still used that way today. To be stuck in a prison cell is no fun at all, of course, and people would - and still do - go crazy from it. Nowadays, this phrase is used in many settings. In our example, people who have trapped in their homes because of the virus are starting “to go stir crazy”.
“To be cooped up” is similar in meaning. A coop is a cage that holds animals - usually birds. Think of a chicken coop. It’s like a prison for chickens. Often this phrase is combined with the verb “to feel”. We say we “feel cooped up”. We often “feel cooped up” during the winter months, when we can’t get outside as much.
Finally, “brighter days” is probably easy to understand. It’s another way to say “better days”. Its opposite is “darker days”. Often this is combined with the word “ahead”, like in the example. Brighter days are ahead!
Thanks for reading Winning English! Remember to listen to the podcast, as well, to reinforce your learning. As always, remember to like the post, leave a comment, and tell a friend. Talk soon!