Leaving It All On The Field, Cool, Hot, To Trust Blindly, I'm Free

Leaving It All On The Field
This idiom, from professional sports, refers to exhausting all possible efforts to win, either individually or as a team.

Figuratively, this refers to leaving one's sweat, blood, and tears on the playing field. This represents being sincere in one's effort to achieve victory, but does not refer to cheating or other morally questionable methods. It refers simply to hard work and exertion.

Example: "In football, there is no shame in being defeated as long as you leave it all on the field."


Cool
Figuratively speaking, if something is "cool," it is stylish.

This, too, can be applied to both people and things.

Example 1: "That football quarterback is so cool! He doesn't just win games; he's always well-dressed."

Example 2: "I saw a really cool movie the other day."


Hot
Figuratively speaking, something that is "hot" is intense.

When applied to people, particularly women, this means, for example, intensely sexy.

When applied to products, it means, intensely popular.

Example 1: "That actress is really hot. Is she single?"

Example 2: "The Prius is really hot right now. You can't just buy it from the dealer and drive it off the lot; you're put on a waiting list and might have to wait months!"


To Trust Blindly
To trust a person, or a news source, "blindly" is to trust it without question; without the slightest doubt that the source may be mistaken.

Example: Yesterday, I read a story called "Wired youth forget how to write in China and Japan."  According to the story, young people in China and Japan - countries with very high literacy rates - are forgetting how to write with a pen, and gradually, how to even read "kanji," the Chinese characters that are the foundation of both writing systems. This amnesia is supposedly due to young people doing so much "texting" (sending text mesages) with cell phones using pinyin or kana, which function more like alphabets.

Today, I spoke to a resident of China, a Chinese native speaker, who is learning English. After answering a question of his, I mentioned the above news story. He replied, "But the truth is not like that." I answered back, "I'm used to the media exaggerating so I didn't trust the article blindly." I retained skepticism that the article was truly accurate and represented the full story.

The opposite of trusting blindly is to take something with a grain of salt, which is featured in my eBook, "Food for Thought."


"I'm Free"
Generally, this is not a reference to freedom, as in, the opposite of slavery or imprisonment, but saying, "I have free time right now; I am available."

Example: "Can you talk right now?" "Yeah, I'm free." This means, the speaker is free (at liberty) to talk.

This can be applied as a question: "Are you free?" This asks, "Are you free to talk?" (at liberty to speak)


➤ Read more idioms and phrases, English grammar and vocabulary at Basic English Grammar And Vocabulary .