The World of Words: Vocabulary for College Success ... - eLibrary

Insight into Idioms 235I NSIGHT INTO I DIOMSActionsCan you bend over backwards? It is a yoga action that takes lotsof training! Its origin is probably in northern India, where it wasdone to symbolize submission to God’s authority. As an Englishidiom, to bend over backwards means to do everything possibleto please someone else. Here are other idioms that make use ofactions.a. When a person is axed, he (or she) is fired from a job.b. To cut down to size is to criticize a person who is overconfident.c. To draw the line is to set a limit.d. To cover a lot of ground is to give a lot of information.e. When something is revealed only at the last minute, it iscalled a cliffhanger.f. When an audience claps and cheers at a performance, it bringthe house down.Practice chapter words one more time by filling in the letterof the correct idiom into the blank before each sentence.1. After the boss circumscribed the power of the supervisorwho had been ordering us around, he felt he hadbeen __________.2. A person who __________ from his job and has to lookfor a new one will probably feel dejected.Copyright © Cengage Learning. All Right Reserved.3. You may try many things to defeat your adversary, butyou should __________ at cheating.4. The theater is filled with staunch friends of the actors,so they probably will __________ when the play ends.5. My friend inadvertently revealed the ending of themovie, so it was no longer a(n) __________ for me.Links to more lists of English idioms and their meanings can be found at the StudentCompanion Website for this book: www.cengage.com/devenglish/richek8e.