Advanced everyday english: Advanced vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idioms and expressions - Collins Steven 2011
Lesson One. Stilted
Chapter Four
Examples:
✵ Teacher to student:
Your project is good, in that it doesn’t bog down the reader with too much information. However, some of your language is a little stilted.
✵ This novel is a massive, cumbersome piece of work, which didn’t really get going until halfway through. I was also put off by the writer’s somewhat stilted style of prose.
To get to the bottom of something (To resolve a long-standing problem)
Examples:
✵ We’ll have to get to the bottom of this issue and find out why he has been made the scapegoat.
✵ Deep down, she still feels that the doctors haven’t got to the bottom of her illness.
Distraught (Extremely worried)
Examples:
✵ She has enough on her plate with her husband’s health. This latest piece of news must have made her even more distraught.
✵ ’Distraught’ is an understatement as to how we felt when our daughter told us she will be travelling through Africa alone next year during her ’gap’ year. She’s clearly just jumped on the bandwagon to follow what so many young people in the UK do before going to university... without thinking it through properly.
To get flustered (To get into a state of panic or nervousness)
Examples:
✵ Even though she’s outgoing and confident, she gets too easily flustered when she comes up against the tiniest problem at work.
✵ Despite being put on the spot, the Prime Minister didn’t allow himself to get flustered by the questions that were fired at him, and played down the current crisis.
Passe (No longer fashionable)
Example:
✵ You’re on record as saying that you have a soft spot for some kinds of music considered passe by the youth of today.
Squeamish (Afraid of the sight of blood, easily disgusted by unpleasant images)
Example:
✵ As a surgeon I can’t afford to be squeamish; I just take flesh and blood in my stride. Having to comply with stupid government regulations is much more of a problem for me.
✵ Doctor and Patient:
Dr: Are you squeamish at all?
P: No, not really, although my friends gave me stick, once for fainting after an injection.
To get a kick out of something (To enjoy/get special pleasure out of doing something-very often something dangerous, unusual or something most other people would not enjoy)
Example:
✵ It baffles me as to how some people get a kick out of breaking the law; I’ve always gone by the book in whatever I do.
✵ He clearly gets a kick out of treating people like dogsbodies. He can’t continue to go round with that attitude.
Handful
i. (A few)
Examples:
✵ There are a handful of young players coming through at the club.
✵ I got so flustered on the nightmare car journey going to the party, worried that we’d never get there. When we did eventually arrive, there were only a handful of people left. But it didn’t seem to me that we’d missed out on any fun.
ii. (Difficult to deal with-especially children)
Examples:
✵ Even though her children can be quite a handful at times, she’s a loving, affectionate mum whose kids bring out the best in her.
✵ He claims that his youngest son is a real handful; mind you, you can’t always go by what he says about his children.
“Even though she’s outgoing and confident, she gets too easily flustered when she comes up against the tiniest problem at work.”
(see page 52)
To pass out (To faint)
Examples:
✵ If you want to rub her up the wrong way, wind her up about the time she passed out at the school parade. It took her at least 20 seconds to come round.
✵ I almost passed out when I saw the backlog of work I had to get through. How was I going to catch up?
Pompous (Too formal /serious and self-important)
Examples:
✵ What came through most of all was his pompous attitude towards the younger members of the firm.
✵ He gets a lot of stick from his kids for being a bit on the pompous side, but I find him very witty...although he does waffle on.