介绍:
1) Belly Up
- Lehman Brother's went belly up during the financial crisis.
-The rubber tapping company went belly up after the price of rubber tanked.
- After their competitor spread a rumor that the restaurant was haunted, they went belly up.
Definition: To fail, usually a company.
Etymology: Based on the idea of a dead animal found lying on its back, with its belly (stomach) facing up.
Other examples:
A. Without him, the small company will go belly up. To keep him, they decided to increase his salary.
B. His company went belly up after he got obsessed with gambling.
2) Blow hot and Cold
- Alexander kept blowing hot and cold in his relationship with Katy.
-William kept blowing hot and cold on his decision to move a new country.
-After Cathryn kept blowing hot and cold with Jordan, he decided to date someone new.
Definition: To sometimes like or be interested in something or someone and sometimes not, so people are confused about how you really feel.
Etymology: This expression comes from Aesop's fable (c. 570 b.c.) about a man eating with a satyr on a winter day. At first the man blew on his hands to warm them and then blew on his soup to cool it. The satyr thereupon renounced the man's friendship because he blew hot and cold out of the same mouth. The expression was repeated by many writers, most often signifying a person who could not be relied on.
Other examples:
A. Some people believe in astrology. They claim Libras tend to blow hot and cold in decision making.
B. All his life, she has been blowing hot and cold with him. But he never thought about leaving her.
3) The whole 9 yards
- Paris of Troy went the whole 9 yards for Helen, since she was worth it.
- The gold prospectors could not promise the whole 9 yards with the new gold mine.
- When I get Korean food, I order bul gl gi, gal bee, jap chae, gap chang, the whole 9 yards.
Definition: Everything. All of it.
Etymology: Among the possibilities are the nine yards of material from which tailors made expensive men's suits; the nine cubic yards of concrete that concrete trucks held; the nine yards (or spars) on a three-masted sailing ship; the volume of grave soil; and the length of a World War II aircraft ammunition belt.
Other examples:
A. It's simply impossible or not appropriate to think about knowing the whole 9 yards of your spouse's life after marriage.
B. That's the whole nine yards! I have nothing left to invest.
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