VOCABULARY - IDIOMS

Sacred Cow

Meaning: An indvidual or organization that one cannot criticize

Saving Grace

Meaning: Something that redeems a bad situation

Scare the Living Daylights Out of Someone

Meaning: Frighten someone severely

Scorched Earth

Meaning: Ruthless, extremely destructive

Screw The Pooch

Meaning: To make a serious error

School Of Hard Knocks

Meaning: Difficult real-life experiences from which one has learned

Second Banana

Meaning: A person in a subservient position

Second Stringer

Meaning: A substitute player in a sport; a substitute for a job who is not the most talented person

Second Wind

Meaning: Renewed energy

See Eye to Eye

Meaning: To agree fully; to have the same opinion or perspective on a matter.

See Something Out of the Corner of Your Eye

Meaning: Use peripheral vision

Seize (Take) the Bull By the Horns

Meaning: Attack a problem directly

Seize the Day

Meaning: Take an opportunity

Sell (Someone) a Bill of Goods

Meaning: Trick someone; be deceptive

Sell Like Hotcakes

Meaning: Be sold very quickly

Selling Point

Meaning: An attractive feature of something for sale

Set in Stone

Meaning: Fixed; unchangeable

Set something to Music

Meaning: To write a piece of music to accompany a set of words

Set the Bar (Too) High

Meaning: To set a high standard for something

Set the Thames on Fire

Meaning: Do something amazing. Usually used in the negative.

Set the World on Fire

Meaning: Do something amazing; have a brilliant stretch in one’s career

Shake the Dust off Your Shoes

Meaning: Make a clean break with a relationship or situation

Shape Up or Ship Out

Meaning: Behave properly or leave the organization

Sharp as A Tack

Meaning: Mentally agile

Shell Game

Meaning: A method of deception in which you conceal your actions by moving something frequently

Shift Gears

Meaning: Change the subject, or change what one is doing

Shipshape And Bristol Fashion

Meaning: Tidy, clean

Shit a Brick

Meaning: Be extremely fearful.

Shoot from the Hip

Meaning: Talk or act without consideration

Shoot Off One’s Mouth

Meaning: Talk without considering one’s words

Shoot Oneself In The Foot

Meaning: To harm or disadvantage oneself through one's own actions or decisions, often inadvertently.

Short Fuse

Meaning: A quick temper; a tendency to anger quickly

Shot Across the Bow

Meaning: A warning of more serious actions to come

Shoulder A Weight Off Your Shoulders

Meaning: You no longer worry about something or deal with something difficult

Show Me an X And I’ll Show You a Y

Meaning: There is a consequence to X that you may not have thought of.

Show One’s True Colors

Meaning: Reveal one’s true nature

Show Your Cards

Meaning: Reveal your resources or plans

Sick and Tired of

Meaning: Extremely annoyed by something that occurs repeatedly

Sick as a Dog

Meaning: Extremely ill.

Sick as a Parrot

Meaning: Very disappointed

Sight for Sore Eyes

Meaning: A sight that makes you happy

Silver Bullet

Meaning: Something simple that resolves a difficult problem

Simmer Down

Meaning: Become less angry; regain one’s composure

Sink or Swim

Meaning: Fail or succeed

Sing a Different Tune

Meaning: Change your opinion

Sit On (Something)

Meaning: Delay revealing or acting on something

Sit Tight

Meaning: Wait and do not go anywhere

Sitting Duck

Meaning: Something or someone easily attacked or criticized

Sitting Pretty

Meaning: In a favorable situation

Six Feet Under

Meaning: Dead and buried

Six Feet Under

Meaning: Dead and buried

Six of One, a Half Dozen of the Other

Meaning: The two choices have no significant differences.

Six Ways to (from) Sunday

Meaning: In every possible way

Slam Dunk

Meaning: An effort that is certain to succeed

Sleep Like a Baby

Meaning: To experience a very deep and restful sleep; to sleep soundly

Sleep with the Fishes

Meaning: Dead, often by murder

Slip Someone a Mickey

Meaning: Add a drug to an alcoholic drink in order to knock someone out

Slippery Slope

Meaning: A series of undesirable effects that, one warns, could result from a certain action

Slower than Molasses

Meaning: Exceptionally slow or sluggish; not fast at all.

Small Beer

Meaning: Unimportant, insignificant

Small Fry

Meaning: People or organizations with little influence; children

Small Potatoes

Meaning: Unimportant, insignificant

Smell a Rat

Meaning: Suspect deception

Smoking Gun

Meaning: indisputable evidence of a crime

Snafu

Meaning: A malfunction; a chaotic situation

Snake Oil

Meaning: A useless medicine; a quack remedy; a product or measure promoted as a solution that really does nothing to help

Snake Oil

Meaning: Medicine of unproven value; fraudulent medicine

Sneak Peek

Meaning: A sneak peek is an opportunity to view something in advance of its official opening or debut

Soak Up the Sun

Meaning: To enjoy the sun

Sold On (Something)

Meaning: Convinced of something

Some Eggs

Meaning: Achieving a major goal requires the ability to tolerate some problems

Someone’s Fingerprints Are All Over (Something)

Meaning: Someone’s influence is evident

Something to Crow

Meaning: About Something to be proud of, an accomplishment about which one is justified in bragging

Son of a Gun

Meaning: 1) A rogue. 2) An exclamation of surprise.

Sore Point

Meaning: A sensitive topic for a particular person

Sour Grapes

Meaning: Disparagement of something that has proven unattainable

Spare The Rod And Spoil The Child

Meaning: It is necessary to physically punish children in order to raise them right.

Speak of the Devil (and He Shall Appear)

Meaning: The person we have just been talking about has entered.

Speak with A Plum in (one’s) Mouth

Meaning: To speak in a manner that is indicative of a high social class.

Spick and Span

Meaning: Clean and neat

Spill the Beans

Meaning: Reveal a secret; Give away a secret

Spin A Yarn

Meaning: Tell a story

Spin One’s Wheels

Meaning: Engaging in activity that yields no progress; getting nowhere

Spit into The Wind

Meaning: Wasting time on something futile

Spoiling for a Fight

Meaning: Combative, wanting conflict, eager to argue or fight

Square the Circle

Meaning: Attempt an impossible task

Stab Someone in the Back

Meaning: To betray (somebody)

Stalking Horse

Meaning: Someone who tests a concept in advance of its application; a candidate who enters a political race in order to test the strength of the incumbent

Stand Someone In Good Stead

Meaning: Be useful in the future

Stand On One’s Own Two Feet

Meaning: To be independent and self-sufficient

Stand One’s Ground

Meaning: Refuse to back down; insist on one’s position

Start with a Clean Slate

Meaning: To start (something) again with a fresh beginning; to work on a problem without thinking about what has been done before

Steal Someone’s Thunder

Meaning: Upstage someone

Stem the Tide

Meaning: To stop or control the growth of something, usually something unpleasant.

Step Up One’s Game

Meaning: Work to advance to a higher level of a competition

Step Up to the Plate

Meaning: Prepare to take action, be the person in a group who takes action

Stick It to the Man

Meaning: Do something that frustrates those in authority

Stick Your Nose into Something

Meaning: Intrude into something that is not your affair

Sticker Shock

Meaning: Surprise at the high price of something

Stick-in-the-Mud

Meaning: A person who dislikes or adapts slowly to new ideas

Sticky Wicket

Meaning: A difficult, tricky situation

Stiff-Necked

Meaning: Stubborn; excessively formal

Storm in a Teacup

Meaning: A commotion that dies down quickly, about something unimportant

Stormy Relationship

Meaning: Relationship that has a lot arguments and disagreement

Stumbling Block

Meaning: An obstacle, physical or abstract

Straight Arrow

Meaning: An honest, trustworthy person

Strain at a Gnat and Swallow a Camel

Meaning: To make a fuss over something unimportant while ignoring larger issues

Strike A Chord

Meaning: Used to describe something that is familiar to you, reminds you of something or is connected to you somehow.

Sugar Daddy

Meaning: A rich man who is generous with younger women in return for sexual favors

Sure-Fire

Meaning: Certain to occur; certain to succeed.

Swan Song

Meaning: A final appearance

Swan Song

Meaning: This expression is used to describe a final act before dying or ending something.

Sweep Under the Carpet

Meaning: Attempt to temporarily conceal a problem or error

Sweep Under the Rug

Meaning: Attempt to temporarily conceal a problem or error

Sweet Dreams!

Meaning: Sleep well!

Sweeten the Deal

Meaning: Add something to an offer during a negotiation

Sweeten the Pot

Meaning: Increase the amount of winnings potentially available in a game of chance, especially poker

Swim Against the Tide

Meaning: Do something contrary to a trend or usual opinion

Swim with Sharks

Meaning: To take a major risk

Swim with the Fishes

Meaning: Have been killed, especially with involvement of organized crime

Swing for the Fences

Meaning: Attempt to achieve the largest accomplishment possible

Swing for the Fences

Meaning: Attempt to achieve the largest accomplishment possible

Sword of Damocles

Meaning: Something that causes a feeling of constant threat.

stand a chance

Meaning: - to have a possibility of succeeding, even if a remote one - to be possible to be able to do something - to have a hope of success - to have a possibility or a hope of success