hey guys welcome to another episode of
idioms we heard this week today we're
going to discuss some real idioms that
we heard and used this week
David you thought of a great one now
this isn't really an idiom but it's a
interesting way to use a word so so many
words in American English have different
uses different meanings and one of them
is waffle what do you think of when you
hear the word waffle
I think of delicious breakfast oh I
thought of crappy frozen egg Oh
breakfast okay so it can be homemade and
delicious it can be less good and frozen
wait but a lot of people probably think
first of the food yes definitely you
think first in food but then you used it
in a different way this week right so I
used it to say equivocating right going
back and forth that's a hard word yeah
let's use a simpler word going back and
forth about something I'm sure about
what decision to make right mm-hmm so we
were talking about potty training with
Stoney who's two years and four months
and it's time to do it time to do it but
I was waffling I was feeling like yes
it's time to do it but oh it's gonna be
so hard maybe we can put it off for a
little bit and do we do it for the
nighttime yadi training at the same time
method do you use right so I know in my
heart that it's time but also I wish it
wasn't and so I was waffling a little
bit I was going back and forth
he was waffling now another thing that
has been a phenomenon sort of recently
is the idea of waffling something can
you waffle it do you know what I'm
talking about
it's like putting all sorts of different
foods in a waffle iron I did not that's
the thing okay I'm going to put a link
to that okay in the description below
I'm really sure I can find a video of
someone putting weird things in a waffle
iron
a waffle iron is the kitchen
appliance that you use to make waffles
at home another word like that where
it's a single word single spelling but
it has lots of different ways it's used
is the word smart and I was thinking
about so we're watching the NBA playoffs
by the time this goes live
perhaps a champion will have been
declared already but it's still playoff
time now and this players for the
Celtics right right Boston Celtics and
his last name is smart and we were
watching the game a couple nights ago
and something happened he kind of got
knocked to the ground it looked like it
hurt and I said oh that's got a smart
which is hilarious because his last name
is smart but but what that means is if
something smarts I think it can be both
physical and emotional don't you yeah so
if it smarts like let's say you scrape
your knee on cement and it stings that
smarts yeah but also something can smart
like if you run into your ex-boyfriend
with his new girlfriend that might smart
that might hurt emotionally it's a
little bit of an ouch that stings yeah
sting that's a good way physically and
emotionally to describe it yeah it has
another meaning completely unrelated
which i think of when I think of the way
someone dresses like a smart dresser
right I would say clean lines simple
chic sophisticated mmm-hmm any other
words you would use for that day you got
it yeah so smart can be used a couple
different ways an idiom that I heard
this week I was talking with my friend
who was talking about his wife and he
was saying how she does most of the
parenting in their family and he used
the phrase she does the lion share of
the parenting and I thought good idiom
the lion's share is the majority of so
let's say you're working on a
project but the other people they're too
busy they're not really focused on it
you end up doing the lion's share of the
work and you hope that your professor
notices because you want to get credit
for that the lion's share the majority
David can you think of any other idioms
yeah I am so I thought of another one
which is into the lion's den and so we
use that to say that you're going into a
hostile environment in one way or
another so maybe you know that you're
gonna do a presentation at work with the
knowledge that it's kind of you're
pushing things or you're not you're
pretty sure it's gonna be not
well-received you would say with the
bosses who are a little bit standoffish
and difficult to get around exactly so
you might say to a friend the night
before yeah I'm headed into a lion's den
with this one mm-hmm or back to sports
yeah we talked about home court
advantage and the in the NBA playoffs
and so the Sixers were in Boston and it
was like being in a lion's den they were
taunting and being merciless and yeah
really jeering and just being just
really really harsh so the Sixers were
yeah they were in the Lions Den yeah so
I'm in a Facebook group and someone was
posted something saying someone just
told me I had a chip on my shoulder and
to be funny she took a picture of
herself with a Pringle chip on her
shoulder
and she was like how's this for a chip
on your shoulder so when someone has a
chip on their shoulder it means that Bob
it's hard to explain someone might think
they have a bad attitude about something
what would you say well that's history
with something if you have a chip on
your shoulder you have an agenda you
have a really strong maybe over the top
focus on what you're doing so that is
not how I would describe that you have a
chip on your shoulder yeah I think of it
as being someone who because of
something
happen in the past they have a negative
they're coming into a situation with a
negative experience with a little bit of
like an aggressive edge and someone
could say she has a chip on her shoulder
what's her problem
yeah mm-hmm so coming into it really
focused on I'm gonna do better this time
or okay I'm gonna I'm gonna yeah make a
different impression this time a little
like you come off too strong okay
definitely not easygoing no and
definitely like you're coming into a
situation carrying baggage from a past
situation and also maybe it's a way to
say it is you're coming into a situation
making a lot of assumptions about how
it's gonna go mm you know you're coming
into the into a meeting with a chip on
your shoulder you're coming in sort of I
know how this is gonna go so I'm on edge
and the first moment that I see yeah I
knew it was gonna go that way I'm
jumping on that theme and going with it
so let's try to come up with like a
concrete example of this let's say that
your coworker was left off of a project
that she wanted to be on but she didn't
get put on the team and a couple months
later it's a new meeting and we're
deciding who's gonna work on what
projects she comes in being really
aggressive about what she wants to work
on and it might seem like she has a chip
on her shoulder from the last time she
got left off the team's perfect example
yeah yeah chip on their shoulder mm-hmm
okay here's one that I used recently I
was getting my taxes done and I have a
great account Sarah we love her but she
asked me to review the tax return that
she had prepared and I mean the reason
why I had her do it was because I don't
understand it at all
so she said will you review this before
I turn it in and I said Sarah I will
read it over and I will review it but
it's all Greek to me what does that mean
it might as well be in a completely
different language that you don't
understand it all right right yeah if
something's all Greek to you that
you don't get it at all not even a
little bit it might as well be a Greek
as someone who doesn't speak Greek my
taxes might as well be in Greek now if
you were from Greece and you were in
America and you said that idiom it'd be
pretty funny because it would no longer
have the meaning true
okay the last idiom that I can think of
that we heard this week is pushing
buttons this is a good one do you
remember when that came up stoney and
the dishwasher and he's been in a
terrible - kind of a phase that's so
terrible we used that phrase in American
English terrible twos because it's this
difficult phase of constantly pushing
boundaries and constantly just saying
yapping and prodding and yeah he's
constantly saying no right now and so
he's been getting under our skin a lot
another good one nobody good one love
the kid but he gets under your skin when
he's constantly screaming no throwing a
fit having a meltdown irritating mm-hmm
yes
so go ahead with pushing buttons so he
likes to push the buttons on our
dishwasher and sometimes it turns on and
it's a mess and it's not full or
whatever he screws it up and so he was
pushing the buttons and David asked him
not to so of course he kept doing it and
David said oh you really know how to
push buttons and it was a double meaning
because Tony was literally pushing the
buttons but what it really meant was you
know how to do something that bothers me
to provoke me to get under my skin
exactly kind of be annoying on purpose
yeah just to test the bone yes push your
buttons yeah that's right
so guys that's it for idioms we heard
this week is there an idiom that you
heard that you need help defining put it
in the comments below also I think this
series with David doesn't just have to
be about idioms I think right it can we
can open it up to other questions do you
have a question about American
culture or something like that feel free
to ask if the other thing I wanted to
say was this format of this more
conversational video with David has
grown out of the podcast that we did in
2017 we have about 25 episodes and those
are all available on iTunes you can get
them on my website they're a great place
to go to study idioms and we talked
about lots of things there are travels
we talk about pronunciation of course so
please feel free to check out Rachel's
English comm slash podcast and that's it
for now
we look forward to seeing your questions
that's it and thanks so much for using
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