Book of Idioms, Episode 25

BURY THE HATCHET: end a feud or dispute. American in origin but now more widely used. Jakarta Post: <<A plenary session of the House of Representatives unanimously agreed on Friday to pass an amendment to the Legislative Institutions (MD3) Law, ending a two-month legislative standoff between the coalitions of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto. ...

Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said passing the amendment would allow the government to permit ministers and other government officials to attend House hearings after the two opposing camps agreed to bury the hatchet by allowing the passing of the law.>>


STRAWS IN THE WIND are small indications of what's coming in the future. This is a rather old idiom, but still used.
A CANARY IN THE COAL MINE is similar but carries a stronger sense of warning and suggests that the warning sign comes from an especially sensitive entity—miners carry canaries into coal mines so that if there is poison gas, the bird will be affected by it first and will give the miners a chance to get out.
Example: The Guardian (London): <<Scotland and Catalonia are straws in the wind for the whole of Europe. Next Thursday, we get the latest eurozone growth figures, which are likely to show yet another quarter of stagnation or slow growth. Economists will rail at Brussels and the ECB, for failing to make Europe more like Britain and the US. But the political momentum against free-market reform is growing.

In France, you have the far right on 25%. In Germany last month, the anti-euro Alliance for Germany (AfD) party surged to double digits in two regional elections. The Greek government – the original canary in the coalmine for the whole crisis – is struggling to finish its term of office, while Europe’s biggest Marxist party waits in the wings, having won the European elections there and taken control of the biggest administrative region. There are big forces now in Europe that reject the status quo..>>


ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: in danger of being eliminated. York Dispatch (Pennsylvania, USA): <<Faced with a financial crisis that's threatening to devastate York City services next year, Mayor Kim Bracey announced last week she's setting up a system to accept donations.

The hope is people will step up to help offset the "severely draconian" cuts intended to close a $7 million gap between anticipated revenues and expenses without increasing property taxes. On the chopping block are more than 75 jobs – including eight in the fire department and 46 in the police department.>>


SOUR GRAPES: criticizing something after you find out you can't have it yourself.
Example- NBC Sports: <<Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery has slammed the Ballon d’Or as an award decided by “politics.” ...
Hard not to read those words and feel Ribery’s fury over the situation. Having had an unbelievable 2013 season, the French winger found himself one of the finalists for the award with a select few believing he might even take it home. But it wasn’t to be as Ronaldo’s record-breaking season was enough to see him break Lionel Messi‘s three-year streak of winning the award. Aside from Ribery, few posed the argument that Ronaldo didn’t deserve the recognition, leaving Ribery’s comments to sound like sour grapes.>>


KILL TIME: to entertain yourself to avoid boredom. Jakarta Post: <<As the standoff at the House of Representatives drags on, many newly installed lawmakers find themselves simply killing time, being paid for doing nothing.
One such lawmaker is Daniel Johan of the National Awakening Party (PKB), who chooses to spend his afternoons reading books or watching TV in his office on the 21st floor of the Nusantara I building in the House complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta.>>


TO BE CAUGHT OFF GUARD: to be surprised, to be unprepared for something. Los Angeles Times: <<There’s more and less of Taylor Swift in the news this week, with just-announced details of her 1989 world tour competing with word that Swift’s record label has pulled her music off Spotify for an indeterminate period. ...

Ultimately the 1989 tour is slated to take the pop-country star to eight countries on four continents, also including Europe, Australia and Asia. ...

Meanwhile, all of Swift’s albums have been removed from [the streaming music service] Spotify, as her label, Big Machine Records, reportedly is being put up for sale for an estimated $200 million ...

Spotify reportedly was caught off guard by the move, which was delivered in a formal notice to the service's officials late last week ...>>

➤ Read more idioms and phrases, English grammar and vocabulary at Basic English Grammar And Vocabulary . You might also like ⏬

➤ Book of Idioms

➤ Idioms about Animals

➤ Idioms of Expression

➤ Idioms on Food

➤ Idiomatic Expressions

➤ Origin of Idioms

➤ Proverbs

➤ Idioms on Situation

➤ Idioms on Temperature