Commonly used english part 12 pptx

111

come what may

- no matter what might happen
Come what may I was determined to go to Spain for my holidays.

come with the territory

- to be expected under the circumstances (like something that comes with a sales
territory)
The fact that the man has no free time comes with the territory with his work as a
news reporter.

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commit (something) to memory

- to memorize something
I worked hard to commit the names to memory.

common touch

- a friendly manner with everyone
He has a common touch and everyone likes him a lot.

con (someone) out of (something)

- to trick someone out of money or something valuable
The man on the street corner tried to con the woman out of some money.

confide in (someone)

- to tell secrets or personal matters to someone
I usually confide in my friend when I have a problem.


112

conk out

- to fall asleep quickly with great fatigue
As soon as we returned from the hike I conked out in front of the TV.

conspicuous by one's absence

- to have one's absence noticed
The teacher was conspicuous by her absence and everyone asked where she was.

contradiction in terms

- a statement that seems to have a contradiction
It was a contradiction in terms for the woman to pretend that she had no money while
living in a mansion.

contrary to (something)

- in spite of something

Contrary to what everybody thought, my friend had already quit his job.

control the purse strings

- to be in charge of the money
My mother always used to control the purse strings in our family.

cook one`s goose

- to ruin one`s chances
The girl cooked her goose and has no chance of getting the new job.

cook (something) up

- to invent something, to plan or plot something
I do not know what kind of plan she is cooking up but it should be quite interesting.


113

cook the books

- to cheat in bookkeeping
The accountant was fired when someone discovered that he was cooking the books.

cool as a cucumber

- to be very calm and brave, to be not worried or anxious
The woman was as cool as a cucumber when her canoe turned over in the river.

cool off/down

- to let one's anger die away
When the basketball players began to cool down they were allowed to play again.

cool one`s heels

- to be kept waiting
The man was forced to cool his heels in the waiting room before his boss would talk
to him.
cop a plea

- to plead guilty to a crime in order to get a lesser penalty
The man was forced to cop a plea when the evidence against him became too strong
to dispute.
cop out

- to avoid doing something that you were planning to do
My friend copped out from our plan to go to to the beach for the day.
a copycat

- someone who copies another person`s work or actions
The little boy was accused of being a copycat by the other children.



114

cost a pretty penny

- to cost a lot of money
I believe that my aunt's new coat cost a pretty penny.

cost an arm and a leg

- to cost too much
The new motorcycle cost my brother an arm and a leg.

cough up

- to give something unwillingly
The man finally coughed up enough money to pay for the bicycle.

could do with (someone or something)

- to want or need someone or something
I could do with a new computer now that mine is getting old.

count noses

- to count people
After the teacher finished counting noses everyone got on the bus.

count on (someone or something)

- to depend on someone or something
You can count on our boss to do everything right.
count one`s chickens before they`re hatched

- to assume that something will be successful before it is certain

"Don`t count your chickens before they`re hatched. You are spending your money and
you do not have a job yet."


115

count (someone) in

- to include someone in something
I know that my friends will count me in if they go to the zoo.

count (someone) out

- to exclude someone from something
"Please count me out of your plans to go skiing for the weekend."

a course of action

- the procedures that will be followed to do something
We decided on our course of action before we told our boss about our decision.

cover a lot of ground

- to deal with much information or facts, to travel a great distance
We covered a lot of ground in our history class at school.

cover for (someone)

- to make excuses for someone, to cover someone's errors
I covered for my friend when the boss saw that she was away from her desk.

cover for (someone)

- to do someone else's work
We always cover for each other when someone at work is sick.

cover one`s tracks

- to hide where one has been, to hide what one has done
The man was trying to cover his tracks but it was easy to see where he had been.


116

cover up (something)

- to hide something wrong or bad
They tried to cover up the facts regarding the illegal election campaign funds.
cozy up to (someone)

- to try to be extra friendly to someone
I do not know what my neighbor wants but recently he has been trying to cozy up to
me.

crack a book

- to open a book to study
I did not crack a book until the last week of classes.

crack a joke

- to tell a joke
The man was a lot of fun at the party because he was always cracking jokes.
crack a smile

- to let a smile show on one`s face
Our boss never cracked a smile during the meeting.
crack down on (someone or something)

- to enforce laws or rules strictly
The school principal decided to crack down on people running in the halls.
crack of dawn

- daybreak, early in the morning
We got up at the crack of dawn to go fishing.





117

crack open a book

- to open a book to study
I did not crack open a book during the weekend.

crack the whip

- to try to make someone work hard or obey you by threatening them

We had to crack the whip in order to get the job finished before the weekend.

crack up

- to burst into laughter
I cracked up when the man started talking about the incident with the taxi driver.

crackpot

- an eccentric person with ideas that do not make sense to others
The man is a crackpot and you never know what he will do next.

cramp one`s style

- to limit one`s talk or action
Working in the new department is beginning to cramp my style.

crank (something) out

- to produce or make something
I was able to crank out two very good papers before the end of the year.

crash and burn

- to fail spectacularly
We did not want to crash and burn so we were very careful about how we proceeded
with the project.


118

crash the gate

- to enter someplace without a ticket or without paying
Many people did not have a ticket for the concert so they decided to crash the gate.

crazy about (someone or something)

- to like someone or something very much
My sister is absolutely crazy about rap music.

cream of the crop

- the best
When our company hires new employees we always look for the cream of the crop.

create a stink

- to make a big issue out of something
The woman decided to create a stink when she found the bad product at the
supermarket.

create an uproar

- to cause a sensation
The referees created an uproar when they asked the star player to leave the game.

creature comforts

- things that make people comfortable

We had no creature comforts during our trip to South America.

a credit to (someone or something)

- to be invaluable or beneficial to someone or something
The doctor was a credit to the hospital where he had trained.


119

the creeps

- a strong feeling of fear or disgust
I get the creeps every time that I see a spider or snake.

creep up on (someone or something)

- to crawl quietly toward someone or something
The thief crept up on the elderly woman in the supermarket.

crocodile tears

- a show of sorrow that is not real
The man said that he was very sorry but his tears were only crocodile tears.

crop up

- to appear or happen unexpectedly
I will meet him early next week unless something crops up that keeps me busy.

cross a bridge before one comes to it

- to think and worry about future events or problems before they happen
We should not worry about that problem now. We can cross that bridge when we
come to it.

cross one`s heart and hope to die

- to promise that what you are saying is true
"I promise that I will pay back the money next week. Cross my heart and hope to die."








120

cross one`s mind

- to think of something, to occur to someone
It crossed my mind that I would see him in the evening so I did not need to phone
him.

cross out (something)

- to eliminate something by drawing a line through it
I crossed out my name from the list of volunteers.

cross swords with (someone)

- to have an argument with someone
I do not want to cross swords with the head teacher again.

cross the Rubicon

- to do something where you cannot go back (Julius Ceasar crossed the Rubicon and
made a fight with the Roman Senate inevitable)
The man crossed the Rubicon when he began on a course that he could never turn
back from.

cross to bear/carry

- something that you must do or continue with even though you are suffering
Looking after my sister`s children is my cross to bear.

crux of the matter

- the central issue of a matter
The crux of the matter is that we no longer have enough money to go on a holiday.