Showing 24 of 3,697 lessons.
busy as a bee
Very active and hardworking
“She's BUSY AS A BEE”
butter up
Flatter someone excessively in order to get something from them
“Don't BUTTER HIM UP”
butter wouldn't melt
Seemingly innocent but actually cunning
“She acts sweet BUT BUTTER WOULDN'T MELT in her mouth”
butterfingers
A clumsy person who drops things
“You BUTTERFINGERS. You dropped my phone.”
button your lip
To stop talking; be quiet
“BUTTON YOUR LIP and listen to me”
buy time
To delay something to gain more time
“I'm trying to BUY TIME with more questions.”
buzz off
To go away; leave someone alone
“Just BUZZ OFF, I'm busy.”
buzz saw
A dangerous situation or person
“He ran into the BUZZ SAW with that comment”
by a hair
By a very small margin
“We won BY A HAIR”
by all means
Of course, certainly
“BY ALL MEANS, go ahead”
by and large
Generally speaking; on the whole
“BY AND LARGE, it's been a disaster.”
by dint of
By means of; through the efforts of
“She succeeded BY DINT OF hard work”
by heart
From memory
“I know this procedure BY HEART, unfortunately.”
by hook or by crook
By some possibly dishonest means
“He'll get it BY HOOK OR BY CROOK”
by the book
Follow instructions exactly
“Do it BY THE BOOK”
by the skin of my teeth
By a very narrow margin; barely managing to do something
“I passed the exam BY THE SKIN OF MY TEETH”
by the skin of one's teeth
Barely escaping disaster
“We escaped BY THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH”
by word of mouth
Via personal communications rather than written media
“Spread BY WORD OF MOUTH”
bypass something
To avoid or go around something
“Let's BYPASS the traffic on this route”
cakewalk
Something very easy to accomplish
“The exam was A CAKEWALK”
call it a day
To decide to stop working on something
“Let's CALL IT A DAY and pretend we achieved something.”
call it a night
End an evening's activities and go home
“I'm going to CALL IT A NIGHT”
call someone's bluff
To demand someone prove their claim
“I CALLED HIS BLUFF and he folded immediately.”
call the shots
Make the important decisions in an organization
“She CALLS THE SHOTS”