italki - 5 commonly used blue idioms Blue ribbon - To be of superior quality or distinction, the best of a gr

搜索英语老师

Richard-Business Eng

职业教师

5 commonly used blue idioms

Blue ribbon - To be of superior quality or distinction, the best of a group

- A blue ribbon panel/committee/working group of experts was fromed to investigate the recent website attacks.

Talk a blue streak - When someone talks very much and very rapidly and won't stop talking

- The woman in the hospital bed next to me talked a blue streak all day. I don’t where she got the energy from!

Feel blue - When someone looks or feels depressed or discontented

- What’s that the matter with you today? You seem really blue. I think you've got the blues.

Blue in the face - To try really hard to win someone’s agreement, but usually ends unsuccessfully

- I kept trying to convince him that it was a good idea until I was blue in the face, but he’s so stubborn, he just kept disagreeing with me!

Blue collar - Used to describe men used as labourers, or factory workers

- The company got rid of a lot of the blue-collar workers during the recession. Usually the white-collar managers and supervisors are the first to be layed-off.

2016年11月20日 15:36

评论 · 11

Sudeep...

How do you manage to get all the idioms into one long sentence?... such a skill :)

One small modification should be made to the idiom "blue in the face". This idiom is usually preceeding by the verb talking/speaking/yelling, etc. (actually any verb that refers to spoken speech).

"he ended up (with) TALKING UNTIL HE WAS blue in the face which definitely made him feel blue."

One becomes blue in the face after speaking/debating/persuading, etc. (just imagine someone speaking forcefully and at length and running out of oxygen - hence the 'blue face' :)

Well done Sudeep...

2016年11月21日

Thanks a lot @Richard for your appreciation:) Teachers like you are the gift to this community and to the learners like me:)

I will keep in mind the format of using "blue in the face". I hope it will never make me feel blue again :D

2016年11月21日

Valeriy...

I think the term 'blue oyster' is a figurative expression since, to the best of my knowledge, there are not any natural oysters that are blue in colour. So, I guess the term 'blue oyster' could be classified as idiomatic. Once again, the use of the adjective 'blue' respresents a lack of oxygen... good example... thank you for your comment.

2016年11月21日

Leyla...

Thank you for your colouful comments. You have a good imagination :)

Idioms, especially for English learners, are nice to know but not essential. The idioms are figurative, not literal, so the words in the idioms don't really seem to go together or make sense when they are used together. So, it is a little difficult to remember and know when to use the idioms, especially for English learners.

In my opinion, it is good to know the meanings of the idioms, but not necessary to use them unless they are used in informal discussions.

2016年11月21日