پنج اصطلاح عامیانه ی ترسناک

5 scary English idioms

Today we’re doing some scary expressions that we use all the time If you’re scared of skeletons, too bad! Did you know that there’s a scary skeleton Living inside you right now!? “To have some skeletons in your closet” or “To have a skeleton in your closet” This expression suggests that you have killed someone and put the body in your closet but now of course a “skeleton in your closet” just means you have a very bad hidden secret If anyone found out, it would be very bad for you.

It might ruin you! So, typically if you think someone has a very bad secret maybe they killed someone something they’ve done is very bad I don’t trust this guy You might say “Hmm I bet that guy has a few skeletons in his closet!” It’s super interesting how expressions evolve over time. This expression might sound familiar because it’s quite similar to “To be in the closet” “To be in the closet” means you’re gay but it’s kept a secret You “are IN the closet” and if you tell people for the first time that you’re gay You’re now open about being gay You “come out of the closet” or more simply, you “come out” and at that stage you “are out” to “be out” that’s the expression Then, to “out” someone means you reveal someone’s secret that they did not want people to know not necessarily about being gay.

But something that they didn’t want anyone to know So if you tell someone secret to everyone, you “out” them for example Allen didn’t want anyone to know that he’s secretly an alien Janet, his co-worker, told everyone in the office that he’s actually an alien Thanks, Janet! “As dead as a dodo” The dodo has been dead since around 1690 so definitely this animal is not alive anymore.

So when something is no longer an issue it’s no longer relevant Everyone knows this thing is dead literally or figuratively It is “as dead as a dodo” or more fun: “As dead as disco” for example Did you kill my husband, like I asked? Sure did, Ma’am! He’s as dead as disco! A bucket list a bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die so for example swimming with dolphins going skydiving seeing the Grand Canyon these are things that might be on your bucket list Let me know in the comments, what is on your bucket list? Next one is “the graveyard shift”

Working a graveyard shift typically means you work the very very LATE shift at work if you work the midnight to 8:00 a.m. shift you are working the graveyard shift Have you ever worked the graveyard shift? Do you now work the graveyard shift? This goes nicely with “Saved by the Bell” Okay, class today we’re doing presentations Does everyone have their presentation finished? Timmy, you are next will you please do your presentation for the class. Okay I’m sorry Timmy we don’t have time today tomorrow you’ll do your presentation Timmy just got Saved by the Bell.

He escaped a difficult situation because something interrupted and in that situation you say you are Saved by the bell! Phew! No more time! Saved by the Bell! so usually time interrupts like the end of class the end of a meeting something like that One possible origin for this expression comes from the 1500s apparently people were buried alive quite often they would sometimes find scratch marks on the lids of coffins which made people think “Oh! Maybe we should check if people are really dead or not!” I mean medicine in the 1500s wasn’t exactly amazing and apparently it happened so often that Chopin’s last words were.

So they started tying string to the wrists of dead people burying them having the string go through the coffin through the ground and up above the grave attached to a bell so if they woke up two days later, Romeo and Juliet style, they could ring the bell someone could quickly dig them up and save them Saved by the Bell! And of course someone had to be there in the very late hours from about midnight to 8:00 a.m. to watch the graves to listen for bells to save people who had been buried alive that person was working - you guessed it - the “graveyard shift” It has been argued that this story is bollocks it kind of sounds like bollocks and in fact this expression comes from boxing When a boxer is fighting, and he’s almost knocked out but then all of a sudden ding-ding-ding end of the round the boxer is saved, literally, by the bell this one makes more sense The bell above a grave thing just sounds more fun though I don’t know I prefer to believe the grave one, because it’s terrifying But I’m not a historian If you’re a historian, please tell me what really happened Because that, the bell with the grave thing… That’s just cray cray! (Crazy) Thanks for watching, I hope that lesson didn’t suck!