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3.1.1.1.1: Sickness Idioms II

  • Page ID
    122271
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    Sickness Idioms II

    1. To feel lousy: To feel terrible; to be sick all over

    When people have a bad cold, they feel lousy all over.  My friend ate some bad meat and got the runs, threw up, and felt lousy for a couple of days.

    2. To have the chills: To have the body be hot with a fever, yet to feel very cold and to have the body shake all over

    When I had dengue fever in Indonesia, I ran a fever of 104 degrees F. and had the chills at the same time.  When people have malaria, they have the chills whenever the malaria attacks.

    3. To break out in a cold sweat: To begin to sweat all of a sudden because of being sick or being afraid; to suddenly have cold clammy sweat

    When I got sick, I broke out in a cold sweat and then I came down with a fever.  When a policeman pulled over my friend for speeding, my friend broke out in a cold sweat because he was afraid of the policeman.

    4. To keep food down: To be able to eat without throwing up

    Sometimes it is difficult for women to keep food down when they are pregnant, especially in the first trimester of the pregnancy.  After my friend got sick from drinking too much wine, he couldn’t eat anything because he couldn’t keep any food down without throwing it up.

    5. To pass out: To lose consciousness suddenly; to faint

    My friend Roger passed out after he had drunk too much beer.  He looked sick and then fell asleep on the couch.  When my friend was sick, he tried to stand up too quickly, got dizzy, and passed out on the floor.

    6. To take a deep breath and hold it: To breathe in deeply and not exhale; to breathe in (inhale) deeply and keep the air in your lungs

    When the doctor checked my lungs, he told me to take a deep breath and hold it while he listened to my heart and lungs with his stethoscope.  When I was a boy, I used to swim under water a lot.  I would take a deep breath and hold it while I swam under water.

    7. To watch one's diet: To be careful about what you eat in order to stay healthy or not to get fat

    I am watching my diet because I want to lose weight and get my blood pressure down.  I wish more young people would watch their diets so that they can remain healthy and develop good eating habits.  It is a very good idea to watch your diet when you are old.

    8. To move one's bowels: To go to the bathroom; to defecate (poo-poo)

    I feel much better after I move my bowels in the morning.  People who can’t move their bowels are constipated and sometimes need to take special medicine called laxatives to move their bowels.

    9. To run its course: (said of sicknesses) A pattern that sicknesses have, in which certain things always occur and the patient must experience the whole pattern before he/she can feel better

    My friend had the flu and wanted to get over it quickly, but his doctor said that there was nothing he could do about it because the flu had to run its course.  When I had a bad cold last year, I felt terrible for about ten days, but I knew that I just had to let the cold run its course before I could feel better.

    10. To be blue, to feel blue, or to have the blues: To be sad - sometimes for no reason; to be depressed or feel depressed

    When my girlfriend broke up with me, I felt blue for a long time.  When my friend got sick and lost his job, he had the blues all the time.  In winter in Seattle, people get the blues quite often.

    11. To be in the pink: To be healthy; not to be sick

    I am in the pink right now because I am very healthy and not sick.  Every parent wants his/her children to always be in the pink.

    12.  To feel fit: To feel strong and in good condition

    I usually feel fit because I am very rarely sick.  When I was a young man, I pretty much always felt fit because I was athletic and strong.


    This page titled 3.1.1.1.1: Sickness Idioms II is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Don Bissonnette.

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