Deck 4

Question 1

a casting vote

Answer 1

• an extra vote given by a chairperson to decide an issue when the votes on each side are equal.

Who do you give your casting vote to?

Question 2

iconoclast

Answer 2

• a person who attacks or criticizes cherished beliefs or institutions

notorious as an iconoclast, that music critic isn’t afraid to go after sacred cows

Question 3

To eat one’s words

Answer 3

• retract what one has said, especially in a humiliating way.

They will eat their words when I win

Question 4

dog in the manager

Answer 4

-a person who selfishly withholds from others something useless to himself

Stop being such a dog in the manager and let your sister ride your bike if you’re not using it.

Question 5

a close shave

Answer 5

-situation in which you come very close to a dangerous situation

I had a close shave this morning - some idiot almost knocked me off my bike.

Question 6

A Freudian slip

Answer 6

• a mistake in speaking or writing which shows what you really think or feel about somebody/something

He said the wrong woman’s name during his wedding ceremony, a Freudian slip that sent the bride-to-be into tears.

Question 7

A gordian knot

Answer 7

-an extremely difficult or involved problem

This issue is a Gordian knot of legal troubles

Question 8

A sugar daddy

Answer 8

• a wealthy man who spends freely on a younger person

Don’t you know, her new sugar daddy bought it for her

Question 9

a wet blanket

Answer 9

• a person who spoils other people’s fun by failing to join in with or by disapproving of their activities.

Don’t be a wet blanket and let your friends party.

Question 10

wool gathering

Answer 10

• indulgence in idle daydreaming

my woolgathering was interrupted by a question from the teacher

Question 11

under the harrow

Answer 11

• undergoing distress, sorrow, or torment.

Populations has been under the harrow for months due to the spikes in inflation.

Question 12

cold comfort

Answer 12

• poor or inadequate consolation.

Another drop in the inflation rate was cold comfort for the 2.74 million jobless

Question 13

on the thin ice

Answer 13

• in a precarious or risky situation.

You may pass the course, but you’re on thin ice right now

Question 14

walk with god

Answer 14

• to live in obedience to his commands

Each of the righteous ones will walk with God.

Question 15

a queer fish

Answer 15

• a person whose behavior seems strange or unusual.

They have invariably chosen the queer fish in preference to the more or less recognizable member of the human race.

Question 16

unearthly hour

Answer 16

• A time of day that is unreasonably early or late.

She was up at an/some unearthly hour.

Question 17

the milk of human kindness

Answer 17

• care and compassion for others.

She’s certainly not overflowing with the milk of human kindness, is she?

Question 18

to pay through the nose

Answer 18

• pay much more than a fair price.

They paid through the nose for one-to-one intensive tuition

Question 19

to lose face

Answer 19

• be humiliated or come to be less highly respected.

The military code of conduct required that he strike back or lose face.

Question 20

out and out

Answer 20

• complete or in every way; used to emphasize an unpleasant quality of a person or thing

That’s an out-and-out lie!