Advanced everyday english: Advanced vocabulary, phrasal verbs, idioms and expressions - Collins Steven 2011

Lesson One. To do one’s head in
Chapter Five

Examples:

✵ / hate it when the nights begin to draw in. Winter really does my head in.

✵ I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt. Enough is enough! It’s really doing my head in.

To back down (To withdraw an argument or demand)

Examples:

✵ Off the record, I think the sponsors are going to back down over how Wembley Stadium should be laid out.

✵ I really don’t know how to go about getting them to back down. I’ll just have to keep going on at them and hope the message eventually gets through.

Fiasco (A complete failure, disaster, chaos)

Examples:

✵ He got a lot of stick for the show he put on last year. It turned out to be a fiasco.

✵ He may be streetwise, but his poor attention to detail will soon lead to another organisational fiasco. Please bear this in mind next time you think of asking him to do anything.

To get a buzz out of/from something (To get great excitement from doing something-note if one says that a place has a “buzz”, it means that it has an exciting atmosphere) Colloquial

Examples:

✵ I get a real buzz out of the business, even if we’re only breaking even.

✵ I used to get a buzz from reading rave reviews of my plays, but then I got lulled into a false sense of security and probably became a bit too complacent. I got my comeuppance, though: my next production was a flop.

✵ I miss the buzz of London so much. By and large, countryside towns are so bland by comparison.

Perpetual (Never ending—generally negative)

Examples:

✵ It’s not simply a question of getting their frustration out of their system; there seems to be perpetual unrest amongst the students of this college.

✵ Trying to get my head round these statistics is proving to be a perpetual nightmare.

Pathetic (Awful, useless, feeble—note the more traditional and formal meaning of’pathetic”, which is used to describe someone/something which causes sympathy, makes one feel sorry-see 3rd example below)

Examples:

✵ You can’t go by what the pathetic tabloid press comes out with. It all boils down to the fact that lies and gossip sell newspapers.

✵ I’m baffled as to how a team with players of such a high quality can put on a pathetic performance like that. N\y grandmother could have played better than those wimps!

✵ It was pathetic to see a man who had been through many hardships in his life struggling to make ends meet.

It’s down to you/him etc (It’s your/his responsibility)

Examples:

✵ I’ll pencil it in for Thursday the 18th, but remember, it’s down to you to make the arrangements.

✵ The gist of what he was saying is that the current fiasco is down to his mother-in-law’s negative outlook on life and her unreasonable attitude. She refuses to back down.

To bluff one’s way through something (To pretend that one knows a lot about a subject—note the expression “to call someone’s bluff”, which means to encourage someone to prove that what they are saying is true, or to do something they had been threatening to do, in the belief they will not actually do it)

Examples:

✵ It’s pathetic, really, how someone of my limited knowledge of chemistry can bluff his way through an exam without brushing up beforehand.

✵ He’s in his element when he has to bluff his way through a subject where he’s outnumbered by people who know what they’re talking about. He relishes the challenge.

✵ / don’t think he’s got it in him to carry his threat out. Why don’t we call his bluff and see if he has the guts to do it?

Adept (Skilful/Expert)

Examples:

✵ He is somewhat adept at reaping the rewards of his actions, although his wife tries to play down his talents.

✵ She is usually an adept speaker. This time, however, she only managed to skim the surface of each issue.

To wallow in (To indulge/lose oneself in pleasure, to enjoy one’s own misery or misfortune)

Examples:

✵ / could do with a weekend away with my husband, amid the green rolling hills of the beautiful English countryside, where we can turn off our phones and laptops and wallow in the sheer luxury of a manor house hotel.

✵ At the moment all she wants to do is sulk and wallow in self-pity. It’s a phase she’s going through.

“I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve given him the benefit of the doubt. Enough is enough! It’s really doing my head in.”

(see page 65)