-
spread yourself too thin
You spread yourself too thin when you are so busy that you barely have time to take care of yourself. In other words, you have so much to do that you find yourself not having enough time to sleep, eat or even just take a rest. The result is often extreme stress and exhaustion, which… Read more »
-
It’s up to you.
When you tell friends that something is up to them, you’re telling them to make the decision. You say this expression to let other people decide what to do either because the decision doesn’t matter much to you or you just don’t want to be the one to decide. For example, if you’re about to… Read more »
-
leave it up to someone
When you leave something up to someone, you are giving that person the responsibility and you are trusting that person to do the job. That something can be any activity; it can be planning a party, writing a letter, talking to your parents on your behalf, finding a cheap plane ticket, anything. You are basically… Read more »
-
come to think of it
We say come to think of it when we are reminded of something–a fact or something that we have to do. If a coworker mentions that he’s going downtown and this reminds you that you also need to go downtown to pick something up at a store, you can say, “Come to think of it,… Read more »
-
up for grabs
If something is up for grabs, anybody who is interested in it can try to take it. This can be anything. For example, if there are leftover cookies after a party, they are usually left on the table and are up for grabs, which means anyone who wants one can have one. In another example,… Read more »
-
I’ll let you in on something.
When you let someone in on something, you let that person know what’s on your mind. This can be anything: a secret, a future plan, your school project, … You’re telling someone a piece of information that is usually not widely known. For example you can tell your friend, “I’ll let you in on our… Read more »
-
What’s in store for you?
What’s in store for a person is what that person will experience or encounter at some point in the future. We usually use this expression when we don’t know exactly what will happen or when we don’t want to specify. If a friend is moving to a new place, you can ask, “So what’s in… Read more »
-
a dime a dozen
A dime a dozen is the opposite of our last lesson–hard to come by. If something is a dime a dozen, it’s found everywhere. You don’t have to look hard for it. Using our examples from the last blog, if a clean public restroom is hard to come by, then dirty restrooms are a dime… Read more »
-
hard to come by
If something is hard to come by, it’s rare or difficult to find. This means it’s not ubiquitous, and you often have to look for it. This can be things or types of people or personalities. For example, you can say a clean public restroom is hard to come by when you are walking around… Read more »
-
happen to + verb
You’ve seen this phrase here before. (See the July 27 blog.) I forgot to take it off my list and didn’t realize that I’d written about it already until I started entering it in the blog site. So here it is again in another version of the same explanation and another chance for you to… Read more »