2nd Months Idioms

Question 1

Stock in trade

Answer 1

The goods, tools, and other requisites of a profession

Question 2

To take down a peg

Answer 2

To take the conceit out of a braggart

Ships colors used to be raised or lowered by pegs- the higher the colors, the greater the honor

Question 3

To pass the buck

Answer 3

To evade responsibility

Question 4

To lionize a person

Answer 4

To make a big fuss over someone

Question 5

I’m from Missouri

Answer 5

A skeptic, one who is not easily convinced

Question 6

Red-lettered day

Answer 6

Day of happiness, time for rejoicing (holidays are red-lettered days on our calendars)

Question 7

To let sleeping dogs lie

Answer 7

To let well enough alone- to avoid stirring up old hostilities

Question 8

Thumbs down

Answer 8

Signal of rejection

Question 9

Cause célèbre

Answer 9

A famous law case or controversy

Question 10

One swallow does not make a summer

Answer 10

Don’t jump to conclusion based on incomplete evidence

Question 11

A bitter pill to swallow

Answer 11

A humiliation defeat

Question 12

An ax to grind

Answer 12

Having a selfish motive in the background

Question 13

Sour grapes

Answer 13

To disparage something that you cannot have (from Aesop’s fable about the fox who called the grapes sour because he could not reach them)

Question 14

To swap horses in midstream

Answer 14

To vote against a candidate running for reelection, to change ones mind

Question 15

To cool ones heel

Answer 15

To be kept waiting

Question 16

A red herring

Answer 16

Something that diverts attention from the main issue (a red herring drawn across a fox’s path destroys the scent)