February

He now wore a piratical black eyepatch after an operation. They have failed to prevent the present high level of piratical attacks on seamen

to forswear all violence. ABJURE

But he was the kind of man who would never have let on. He had not even let on that he'd seen a thing. I'm sure he knows more than he is letting on

He let me in on his project but I had to promise not to tell anyone. I will let you in on our plan.

He has in his hands, poised and ready, a heavy quern.

We’ve got to lop off the lower branches of this tree. The city council lopped thousands of dollars from the budget.

sheaves of loppings. A lawyer walked in carrying a whole sheaf of papers. The corn was cut and tied in sheaves.

The legal system is full of snares for those who are not wary.

The party leader has actually declared her support for unilateral nuclear disarmament (= giving up her country's nuclear weapons without first waiting for other countries to do the same).

The project was set up under the aegis of the university.

A black mount for this picture would look good. an excellent mount for a child. mount of a scabbard. A metal beam served as the mount of the construction.

He’s serving two concurrent 10-year sentences.

gaudy plastic flowers. a pair of garish Bermuda shorts

gate to the croft

My career is finally taking off! I was panting after I ran up to the bus.

In the weeks and months immediately after the speech, my life changed almost seismically.

While I struggled, my sister coasted through school with top grades. They bought a sled for coasting down the snowy slopes. We'll coast this victory, we're the best!

the rarefied atmosphere of academia She moves in rarefied circles. When she was climbing up the mountain, she was trying to adjust to the rarified air. He's always dreamt of joining this rarefied group.

I was teased a lot at school because I spoke with a lisp. He has a slight lisp and is conscious of it.

Lawrence attempted to draw me into conversation, but I snubbed him, and went to another part of the room. think she felt snubbed because Anthony hadn't bothered to introduce himself. I simply didn't recognize her and apparently she took it as a snub.

They travelled posthaste to Rome to collect the award.

Winning was their solitary goal. He is a weird solitary. He lived a solitary life at the outskirts of town. This street is completely solitary at this time of day.

The entire area has suffered the depredations of war. Depredation of (= damage done to) the environment is destroying hundreds of species each year.

She said she preferred brawn to brains (= a person who is physically attractive rather than an intelligent one).

He searched the backpack and fished out a torch.

The words were a knell which he had heard before. toll the death knell of the regime

Their political views were anathema to me. They know apartheid is an anathema morally and economically.

She's a mean piano player. She plays a mean piano (= she plays very well). This drink is mean! I want another one!

He asked if I carried sesame seeds or azuki beans.

Cats carry their kittens by the scruff of the neck. I took/grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and threw him out of the hall.

I knew enough to get the drift of what he said.

Some scientists say that the universe is finite in size. This problem has got a finite number of solutions.

She will pull out the country to seek a better place for herself.

Convinced the plane was about to crash, many people were sobbing and in hysterics. He was hilarious - he had us all in hysterics.

He uses the words "guess" and "suppose" frequently, showing that the whole argument is purely conjectural. An expert's opinion must not be based upon speculative or conjectural data.

He recalled his dissipated youth spent in nightclubs and bars. debauched. He led a dissolute life, drinking, and womanizing till his death.

She clutched his hand. Silent and pale, she clutched (onto) her mother's hand. Clutching the money to his chest, he hurried to the bank. He collapsed, clutching his stomach. a fresh clutch of students

At school she was (really) in her element.

There were 2,364 customers without power at the height of the outage, the website said.

Shelling of enemy lines continued all day. The shelling of some villages was so commonplace that people no longer lived there.

Electric cars are increasingly commonplace.

He's a big-picture leader and doesn't get bogged down in the details.

It takes courage to go against the grain and stand up for what you believe in.

Not one would even entertain the idea of taking the job. entertain grave doubts about her sincerity. refused to entertain our plea

The book cover had a picture of a dove superimposed on a battle scene. His passions are superimposed onto his art.

Earthworms help to aerate the soil. aerated soil. aerated water.

The tunes have a graceful sense of elongation, as if they could last all night.

The new computer looked incongruous in the dark book-filled library. It seems incongruous to have a woman as the editor of a men's magazine. The incongruity of her behaviour struck me. There is incongruity between what she promises and what she does.

"I guess each and every one of us has our own way of reacting when we get licked," he said. We'll lick the other teams.

She slammed the phone down in anger. Some days, you go into work and just get slammed. What is this slam for? I didn't do anything! The first thing she heard was the slam of the door.

If you fail these exams, you can resit them next year. People have to think hard about why they want to resit. She's got to do resits in French and German.

Seething with hatred, Brynhild addresses him as, "cruel forswearer," and curses both him and Gudrun to an early death.