3.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1: Body Idioms II

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Don Bissonnette
South Seattle Community College

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Body Idioms II

1. To pull someone's leg: To lie to someone in a joking manner; to tease someone; to kid someone

When the boy’s older sister said that their father was very angry at the boy and he was going to “get it” when the father got home from work, it wasn’t the truth. She was just pulling his leg. My son was just pulling my wife’s leg when he told her that her car had a flat tire. Her tire wasn’t flat at all.

2. To turn one's nose up: To snub someone; to lift one's head up to another person to show that person that you are unhappy; to show displeasure at someone or something by lifting your nose in the air

When the mother told the boy that the spinach was delicious, he turned up his nose at her. The boy turned up his nose at the idea of working on a farm during the summer vacation.

3. Over my dead body: No way possible of doing something; to absolutely not allow something

When the younger brother told the older brother that he wanted to borrow his car, the older brother said, “Over my dead body”! When the girl told her mother that she wanted to go on vacation with her boyfriend, the mother replied, “Over my dead body”!

4. To do something right under someone's nose: To do something in front of another person

which you know that person won't like, or to do something in front of another person without that person's realizing it

While the mother was in the kitchen cooking, the boys took the cookies right under their mother’s nose. The students were cheating on the test right under the teacher’s nose.

5. To have no backbone: To be without strength of character; to be a weak person who won't stand up for himself or herself

I don’t like people who have no backbone because they allow people to take advantage of them easily. Many people have no backbone when they want to ask the boss for a raise in pay.

6. To have guts: To have intestinal fortitude; to be brave and have no fear; to be courageous

It takes a lot of guts for a fireman to run into a burning building. The policeman had a lot of guts to arrest the leader of a gang during a fight.

7. To get out of hand: To be out of control, either for a person or a situation

The party got out of hand, and the police had to come to quiet everyone down. After the children ate a lot of candy last night, they got out of hand and ran around the house making a lot of noise.

8. To take someone over one's knee: To give someone a licking or a spanking; to physically punish someone by having him/her lie over one's knee and hitting him/her on the bottom

My mother took my siblings and me over her knee when we were bad boys or girl. I never took my sons over my knee except when I was joking.

9. Not to sweat it (Don't sweat it!): Not to worry about something

When the student said she had forgotten to do her homework, the teacher said, “Don’t sweat it. You can give it to me tomorrow.” When I told the mechanic that I had lost a lug nut for the wheel on my car, he told me not to sweat it because he had a lot of them in stock.

10. A heel: A person without scruples; a person who does something shameful, especially used in romantic situations when one person hurts another person, often without caring that the other person is hurt

When the married man told the girl he loved her and wanted to marry her, he was a real heel because he was already married. The father felt like a heel when he promised to take his sons to Disneyland and then didn’t do it.

11. To twist someone's arm: To force someone to do something that he/she doesn't want to do, used figuratively usually

My wife is always trying to twist my son’s arm to go out with girls that she likes. So far, she has had no luck. When my elder son was little, my wife had to twist his arm to eat his vegetables.

12. To shove it: A disrespectful way of telling someone you don't like something at all and he/she can put the object where the sun doesn't shine

When I was a young man, I once told a boss that he could take the job and shove it because I quit. The angry customer told the salesperson to shove it when the salesperson said he couldn’t return the product without a receipt.