A
Julie thought her mom would let her go to the party, but no dice.
No luck/ It didn't happen.
I told Tom to stop telling Kim all of his feelings, but he always did wear his heart on his sleeve.
To show your emotions in an honest and open manner
Craig and I fought over a girl in the fourth grade, but that’s water under the bridge now.
No longer important or worth arguing about
Jude was on pins and needles waiting for the results of the test.
To be nervous
Tammy wanted to yell at John for leaving the toilet seat up again, but after their last fight she decided to let sleeping dogs lie.
To ignore a problem because trying to deal with it could cause an even more difficult situation
I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I’m the fastest kid on my block and the smartest too.
To boast or brag
When the politician was caught stealing from the taxpayers, everyone thought he would receive a severe punishment, but all he got was a slap on the wrist.
a small punishment when a more severe punishment is deserved
Vivian expected Craig to sob uncontrollably when she broke up with him; however, Craig kept a stiff upper lip.
Craig did not cry.
We thought that our neighbor’s, the Jones family, were rich beyond our wildest dreams, but it turns out that we’re all in the same boat.
In a similar situation, in the same position
If Kim thinks that I’m going to let her copy my math homework, she’s barking up the wrong tree.
To have the wrong idea
Jose had a hard time comparing the iPhone to the Samsung phone because to him they were apples and oranges.
The phones are so different from one another that they cannot be compared.
Over the summer Brian was really excited about being placed in the advanced math class, but after getting his syllabus on the first day and seeing the workload, he was ready to jump ship.
Brian did not want to be in the advance math class anymore.
Working at the Burger King was at first overwhelming to Kyle, but now he knows the ropes.
Kyle knows how a particular job or task should be done.
The lawyer knew that beating around the bush would get Tom all worked up.
To avoid giving a definite answer or position
The Vikings thought that they would easily beat the other team, but when it was tied with a minute left in the fourth quarter, they knew that this game was really coming down to the wire.
Not decided until the last minute.
Brad was accusing us of stealing his phone until he found it, and now he’s trying to sweep it under the rug.
Pretend that the incident never happened
When Brian felt pretty good about getting the a pair of roller-skates for his birthday, until he saw his twin brother Ryan open up his GameBox X-9000, and then Brian felt like he got the short end of the stick.
Brian felt like Ryan received a better gift than he did.
Mrs. Robinson expects Cassie and my presentation to be good, but we have been working on it every night for the last week, so we are really going to knock her socks off.
Cassie and the speaker’s presentation will far exceed Mrs. Robinson’s expectations.
After playing for three straight quarters, the quarterback was running out of steam.
He is running out of energy.
I thought Janet would be a good worker, but it turns out that she can’t cut the mustard.
Janet was not good enough at the job.
Keisha got up a started yelling at Ronnie and threatening him but Ronnie didn’t even flinch because he knew that her bark was worse than her bite.
Loud but not dangerous
After Ms. Smith caught Darnisha chewing gum for the third time, Ms. Smith scheduled a parent teacher conference with Darnisha’s mother. When Darnisha’s mother came into Ms. Smith’s classroom, she was chewing gum. Ms. Smith thought to herself, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Darnisha acts a lot like her mother.
Alan was excited when he found out that he would have his own front row parking spot at the university, but that was just the icing on the cake.
Something that makes a good situation even better
Jane decided that she would go out on a limb and ask Byron to the Spring Fling dance.
To do something risky
Tom wanted to get down to brass tacks, but the lawyer kept chatting about the weather.
To focus on the essentials or the issue that needs to be addressed.