47615 sport idioms

back the wrong horse
meaning: to make the wrong
choice; to support the wrong thing
(from horse racing)
-It was only after we had invested
all the money that we discovered
we’d been backing the wrong
horse.

bat a thousand
meaning: to do something
extremely well and better than
you had hoped to do it.
-Gloria felt she was batting a
thousandwhen she saw her
boss.
beat the gun
meaning: to do something
before the ending signal of a
game etc.
-Tom tried to beat the gun, but
he was one second too slow.

ball is in someone’s court
meaning: it is up to this person to
make the next move (from tennis)
-The ball’s in your court now. You do
something. I can’t do anything as
long as the ball is in Marc’s court.
blow the whistle on
(someone)

meaning: to reveal information
about someone
-The secretary blew the whistle
on her boss after he wasted
much money in his
call the shots
meaning: to control something,
to make the rules
-Why do you have to call all
the shots? Do what you are
told. I’ll call the shots.

choose sides
meaning: to select from a
group to be on opposing sides
for a debate, fight, or game
-Let’s choose up sides and play
basketball. The children chose
up sides and began the game.
cover all of one’s bases
meaning: to thoroughly
prepare for or deal with a
situation
-The man covered all of his
bases before going to the job
interview and performed very
. well.

off base
meaning: wrong mistaken (baseball)

-You are way off base if you think I was to blame!

play ball with
meaning: to cooperate with someone
-The burglar refused to play ball with
the police and he was taken to the
police station for questioning.

dive in headfirst
meaning: to do
something
impulsively without
thinking about the
consequences
-George likes to dive
in headfirst with
everything that he
does.