List-6
1. To break the back of anything
Meaning- to perform the most difficult part of it
Use:- IÂ have broken the backbone of the problem.
2. To backbite, a person
Meaning- to slander or to speak ill of someone
Use:-Â He is in the habit of backbiting others.
3. He has no backbone
Meaning- he has no will of his own
Use:-Â A henpecked husband has no backbone.
4. Backstairs influence
Meaning- influence exerted in an underhand or clandestine manner
Use:-Â He went scot-free in the case because of his backstairs influence.
5. To cause bad blood
Meaning- Â to cause strife and enmity
Use:-The land dispute has caused bad blood between the two brothers.
6. A bad egg
Meaning- Â a bad penny
Use:-Â a worthless fellow. He has proved a bad egg/penny in his family.
7. Bag and baggage
Meaning- Â with all one’s belongings
Use:- He has shifted from Ludhiana to Phagwara with bag and baggage.
8. To keep the ball rolling
Meaning- Â to keep things going on
Use:- Don’t stop the fun; keeps the ball rolling.
9. To beat about the bush
Meaning- to talk in a roundabout manner
Use:- Come to point; don’t beat about the bush.
10. Bed and board
Meaning- lodgings and food
Use:- You will be provided with bed and board at our expenses.
11. To have a bee in one’s bonnet
Meaning- to be cranky
Use:- He is a mechanic but wants to buy a Roll Royce car. He must be having a bee in his bonnet
12. Bee-line
Meaning- Â the shortest distance between two places
Use:- There is no bee-line to success. You must work hard for it.
13. Behind one’s back
Meaning- Â without one’s knowledge
Use:- My son started learning music behind my back
14. To bell, the cat
Meaning- Â to do something extremely dangerous
Use:- Asking the boss for increasing the salary was like belling the cat
15. His better half
Meaning- Â a man’s wife
Use:- He is fully under the control of his better half
16. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Meaning- Â certainly is better than a possibility
Use:–I don’t want to wait for the prices to go up for selling my scooter as I believe that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
17. To bite the dust
Meaning- Â to be defeated in war
Use:-Â In the war India made Pakistan bite the dust.
18. A wet blanket
Meaning- Â a person who discourages others; one who is a damper to the enjoyment
Use:- Don’t take him to the picnic, he is like a wet blanket.
19. In cold blood
Meaning- Â deliberately; not in passion
Use:-Â It was a murder in cold blood
20. To blow hot and cold
Meaning- to do one thing at one time and the opposite soon after
Use: – IÂ don’t trust him, for he always blows hot and cold
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