Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook (16 page)
Read Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook Online
Authors: Gail Brenner
There’s even an expression for artificial laughter. The slang term
canned laughter
refers to recorded laughter used on radio and TV programs.
The Bar and Club Scene
Bars and nightclubs (or clubs) are popular weekend
nightspots.
Most cities have lots of clubs and several different types of bars. There are
wine bars
that serve wine and appetizers;
sports bars
that offer a sports theme and usually big screen TVs for watching sports events;
gay bars
that cater to
gay and lesbian
(homosexual) clients, but often attract
straight
(heterosexual) clients, also; and
microbreweries
that serve their own locally brewed beer.
For many people, especially
singles
(unmarried or unattached individuals) the main attraction at bars and clubs is the
social scene
(social environment and the opportunity to meet people). Groups of male or female friends may go to a bar or club hoping to meet someone or even
pick up
someone (find a romantic or sexual partner for the evening). This sexual motive has inspired the following nicknames for some bars and clubs:
a pick-up place (
or
joint):
(informal) a place where one can easily
pick up
someone or find a casual date for possible sexual activity
a meat market:
(slang) a bar or club characterized by patrons conducting an active search for casual sex
Of course,
couples
(people in a romantic relationship) also frequent bars and clubs, but some nightspots cater mainly to singles and may even be called
singles’ bars.
[See many more idioms on
dating, romance,
and
sex
in Chapter 8.]
Following are some common idioms and expressions related to bars, clubs, and
nightlife:
bar hopping
(n, adj)
to go from bar to bar in one evening to check the social scene and possibly have a drink at each place. Sometimes said as
do some bar hopping
or
go bar hopping.
Also used as an adjective (
bar-hopping days
) to describe a period of one’s life, usually one’s youth, when
bar hopping
was a regular activity. ♦
On her 21st birthday Jesse’s friends took her
bar hopping. ♦
My
bar-hopping
days are over. I’m a family man now.
club (
or
pub) crawling
(n)
to go from nightclub to nightclub or from bar to bar in one evening to check the social scene and enjoy the music ♦
After a night of
club crawling,
I usually sleep till noon.
♦
There are some great pubs in this town. Let’s go
pub crawling,
and I’ll show you.
Grammar Note:
The expressions
bar hopping, club crawling,
and
pub crawling
are adjective/noun combinations. The nouns
hopping
and
crawling
are in the gerund (
-ing
) form.
disco
(n)
(slang) short for
discotheque,
a nightclub or public place for dancing where the dance music is prerecorded and played by a
deejay.
♦
Are there some good
discos
in this town?
♦
You can find us at the
disco
every Friday night.
[see
deejay
later in this list of terms.]
cover charge
(n)
a charge to enter the bar or club, usually when there is live music, but no ticket being sold. Also called
the cover.
♦
You pay a $5.00
cover charge
at the door.
♦
There is no
cover
at this club, and they always have good bands!
bouncer
(n)
the person (usually large and muscular) hired to control and/or remove any unruly patrons, and also to checks patrons’ ID at the door ♦
My friend is the
bouncer,
so he’ll let you in even though you lost your ID.
♦
The man was drunk and causing trouble, so the
bouncer
kicked him out.
deejay
(n, v)
(informal) short for
disc jockey
or
disk jockey,
the person who plays prerecorded music at a disco or club (also radio or a party) when there is no live music. ♦
He worked as a
deejay
at a popular nightclub while he was in college.
♦
There’s no live music at this club, but there’s a great
deejay.
lounge lizard
(n)
(slang) a person, usually an idle, pleasure-seeking man who frequently goes to nightclubs and
cocktail lounges
(rooms in a hotel or restaurant that serve alcoholic beverages) ♦
There are too many
lounge lizards
in this place. Let’s go to a different bar.
♦
After his divorce, he turned into a
lounge lizard.
Leisure
Taking
time off
from work (taking a vacation or break from work) has inspired plenty of idioms that mean to do no work or have no schedule or obligations.
Relaxing, or
taking it easy,
is usually a good thing, but too much
taking it easy
can sometimes make a person bored, lazy, unmotivated, or uninspired. The following common expressions can be used in a positive or negative way, and they are generally used as verbs:
kick back
♦
On the weekend we like to just
kick back
and relax.
chill (out)
♦
I usually just
chill out
with my friends after school.
do nothing
♦
After
doing nothing
for two days, it’s hard to go back to work on Monday.
goof off
(often means not working when one should be) ♦
I’ve been
goofing off
all day and loving it!
hang out
♦
Come on over and
hang out
with us.
hang around
♦
I don’t want to
hang around
the house all day; let’s go do something!
take it easy
♦
Let’s just
take it easy
today and do the yard work tomorrow.
lie around
or
laze around
or
sit around
♦
I just want to
lie around
and do nothing today.
♦
We
lazed around
until noon.
♦
He
sat around
for two months before he finally decided to get a job.
Note:
Lying
around
or
lazing around
might include napping or sleeping, but be careful not to say
sleeping around,
which means to be having sex with more than one person during the same time period.
Here are some idioms to describe a person who lies around all day doing nothing. People often use these terms to joke about themselves:
a couch potato
♦
I work hard during the week, but on the weekend, I’m
a couch potato.
lazybones
♦
Come on,
lazybones.
Get up and help me do some housework.
Chillin’
Chill,
a slang word from the ’70s, has come to have a number of uses, particularly among young people. As slang for to relax,
chill
might be heard as “I’m just
chilling
with my friends today” (often said as
chillin’,
dropping the final
-g
).
Chill
also means to wait, as in “Well, let’s just
chill
here for awhile until our friends arrive,” or to preoccupy oneself while one is waiting, as in “Take your time; I’ll just
chill
in the bookstore until you’re ready.” People might say
Chill out!
to people who need to cool their anger or frustration, or they might use this slangy expression: “You need to
take a chill pill.”
A
TV junkie
(someone addicted to TV) spends many long hours watching TV — a pastime that requires little or no mental energy. Consequently, the television set is nicknamed
the idiot box
or
the boob tube
(
boob
meaning dummy or idiot). People often sit in front of the TV and
channel surf
(mindlessly flip through the channels with the TV remote).
Getting Away from It All
In American English, people don’t
go
on holiday,
as they do in British English; they
go on vacation
or
take a vacation.
A holiday can be a day of freedom from work or a nationally recognized day to honor an event. So, one does not
go on
it, but one can
have
a holiday,
celebrate
a holiday, or go on vacation
during
the holidays.
A vacation often implies a planned trip or an extended time away from work. Whether a trip is planned or not, people often use the following expressions to refer in general to taking a vacation:
get away from it all
(implies escaping the stress and busyness of every day life) ♦
Going backpacking helps me
get away from it all.
get (
or
go) out of town
♦
He’s been trying to
get out of town
for months, but he’s too busy.
The expressions that follow,
be away, go away,
and
get away,
are often followed by
for
and a duration of time or a specific occasion:
be away
♦
Would you feed my cat while I’m
away?
go away
♦
We often
go away
for the weekend.
get away
♦
We hope that we can
get away
for the holidays.
Two other similar expressions follow:
take off
(to leave, go somewhere) ♦
Let’s
take off
and go camping this weekend.
take time off
(take a leave from work) ♦
I’m going to
take
some
time off
next month.
Transportation
Getting away from home always involves some mode of transportation. People frequently use the verbs
take, catch,
and
go by
to speak generally about transportation.
Take
and
catch
are used for commercial or public transportation, such as planes, trains, and buses.
Go by
is used to talk about all modes of travel, including car and boat. Here are some examples:
- You can
take a plane,
but if you
go by car,
it’s only a three-hour drive. - We’ll
catch a morning flight
out of Chicago. - I’ve
taken the bus
across country, but I’ve never
taken the train. - There are no roads to Yalapa; you have to
go by boat.
Air Travel
A number of idiomatic expressions are specific to air travel. Taking a flight generally requires
making a reservation
or
booking a ticket
(getting a ticket), unless you plan to fly
standby
(have no reservation, and wait for an available seat on a flight). Tickets are referred to as either
one-way
or
round-trip,
depending on whether you are just going to a destination, or you plan to go and return. If your flight is
overbooked
(not enough seats for the number of tickets sold), you may get
bumped
(meaning you’re required to give up your seat), and be forced to wait for the next flight.
Here are a few idioms related to air travel:
carry-on (n, adj):
the small bag or bags that passengers can keep with them inside the plane
leg room (n):
space for legs between one’s seat and the seat ahead
jet lag (n):
the feeling of exhaustion after flying across different time zones
A few types of flights with unusual nicknames are the following:
red-eye flight:
flights that leave late at night; refers to red eyes from lack of sleep
island hopper:
short flight in a small plane that goes from island to island
puddle jumper:
short flight in a small plane, usually in outback areas
Driving
Whether one takes a
road trip
(a vacation by car) or drives for necessity, driving requires knowing the
rules of the road
(the traffic laws). If you break them, it might result in being
pulled over,
or stopped, by a
cop
(police officer).
The terms for many traffic violations, like failure to stop or making an illegal turn, are easy to understand, but some violations, like those that follow, are expressed idiomatically:
cut someone off
to pull too closely in front of someone, requiring him or her to brake quickly ♦
He caused an accident when he
cut someone off. ♦
When someone
cut him off,
he honked and yelled at the person for the next mile.