hi welcome to ink vidcom I'm Adam in
today's video we're going to look at
idioms
but idioms from the world of technology
so very specific idioms I'm going to
give you ten of them I got five here and
we'll have five more coming in a moment
now before I begin what is an idiom an
idiom is an expression or a collection
of words that the words themselves don't
necessarily mean what the expression
combined means right so you have the
words and you know all the words but
when they're put together in this
expression the meaning could be
completely different so all of these
come from technology because they
started about an actual technological
tool or piece of equipment or innovation
and we took this expression and we
applied it to other things so we're
going to start with grease the wheels
now if you think about machines they
have these kinds of wheels they're
called gears or sometimes they're called
cogs the cogs cog in the machine and a
machine might have many of these wheels
and the wheels so sort of work together
now the machines are mostly sorry the
wheels are mostly made from metal and if
you know from experience probably if
metal touches metal too much it heats up
now if it gets too hot then the two
wheels will seize on top of each other
they will cease means they will cat each
other and stop working so to prevent
that seizure we put grease on the wheels
grease is like a thick oil right you put
it all around you make everything sort
of lubricated ok lubricate means you
make it so it doesn't heat up and
doesn't create friction lots of new
words for you here friction is that heat
that comes from the touching each other
too much
so grease the wheel so they don't touch
but how do we use this idiom in everyday
life well if you think about bureaucracy
like government you need to get a permit
to change something in your building for
example now
in some countries to get this permit
we'll take you months you have to go to
this office and sign the paperwork take
this paperwork to that office get it
stamped take it to that office back foot
you could be spending minds and doing
lots of work just to get a simple permit
so what you might do you'll go to your
politician friend and you know asking to
if you can reach the wheels a little bit
make the process easier you'll give them
a little bit of cash he'll give you all
the stamps you need you get your permit
in a week you build your building
everybody's happy grease the wheels so
most commonly it's used to basically
mean like a bribe but it doesn't have to
be a bribe you could just ask somebody
to make things a little bit easier make
a process a little bit smoother okay
bells and whistles ding ding ding right
so bells and whistles if you're talking
about bells and whistles on something
you're talking about all the features
especially you're talking about the cool
the grid features right so if you buy a
car you go to the dealership and you say
to the guy I want this car with all the
bells and whistles means I want every
feature that's available I want to stare
you I want the air-conditioning I want
the automatic I want the GPS the mirror
the rearview camera I want everything
that is available put into this car I
want all the bells and whistles ok so
basically all the good stuff if you go
to an appliance store you want the
machine that has the most bells and
whistles the most cool features that you
can put on it again this is from
old-time industrial machines worked on
steam so the steam created the whistle
and then the bells for when a process
was done etc hit the panic button so in
in a factory that has a lot of machinery
if somebody gets caught in the machine
like let's say your shirt gets caught in
the belt and you start getting dragged
there all over the factory there's a
button that you can press it and all the
machines stop that's called the panic
button ok so when there's a dangerous
situation or emergency just hit the
panic button everything shuts down you
go save your friend from the machine we
use this in everyday conversation
basically we say don't hit the panic
button just yet mainly or he hit the
panic button
it basically means to panic to be really
nervous really scared really worried
about something so if Emily says don't
hit the panic button just yet means
don't lose control relax think about
things carefully make sure that you
everything that can be done is done
before we have to think about the things
failing right so if you're planning a
project and let's say you're you need
that permit like we spoke about before
and the government the government office
says no you can't have this permit your
investors are oh my god what we going to
do we spend so much money well don't hit
the panic button just yet I know a
politician I can reach the wield a
little bit it'll be okay and then
everything works together like that
to make something tick or someone tick
usually we use it with a person you want
to know who that guy is that guy's
interesting I wonder what makes him tick
basically what makes him be the way he
is like take like tick tick tick tick
tick if you think about machines that's
how machines work they take so basically
what makes him work the way he does what
makes him be the way he is you want to
know what drives the person so for
everybody it's different okay some
people they just want to be the best
that they can be some people they have
kids they want their kids to have all
the best things in life so that's what
makes them tick that's what drives them
to work hard every day make lots of
money so they can support their kids
some people it's just ideology some
people it's religion some people it's
love some people it's hate all these
different things that make people tick
okay to pull the plug now technically
there are two meanings to this one is
not so pleasant and the other one is
just kind of neutral if you have a
family member who is very sick or who
had an accident or whatever and he or
she is in the hospital and they this
person is being kept alive by a machine
for example their lungs don't work so
there's a machine that basically gives
them air and takes out the carbon
dioxide etc without this machine
this person would die so you can pull
the family might decide to pull the plug
means disconnect the machine and let the
person die naturally
okay but in everyday situation to pull
the plug basically means to cancel okay
so the I there's a project going on next
door and they're building a building and
they're too loud so I call the police
and tell them listen these people are
disturbing me can you come over here and
do something the police come they
realize these people don't have a permit
to build so they pull the plug on the
project they cancel it or investors they
find out become they want to invest in
your company and then they find out that
you're not really as good as you pretend
you are that your numbers are all lies
that your research is all bogus etc so
they've pulled the plug on the
investment they back out they cancel the
investment okay so all of this from
technology let's look at a few more okay
so now I have five more idioms to talk
about I start with two blow a fuse now a
fuse is like a little piece of look like
glasses sometimes plastic the little
electronic connector that you have in
your circuit box so you have like a
little circuit box and they could be
round one they could be a little long
ones usually like metal at the end metal
at the end this one has metal in the
middle it connects your electricity so
sometimes all your power goes out in
your house or your apartment or whatever
and you don't understand why so you go
you open the circuit box and you see
that the fuse is blown means it's old
the connector broke so just take it out
put a new fuse and everything works
again now when we talk about people if
somebody blows a fuse then means this
means that he or she lost his temper to
lose one's temper
you can see that this opening here to
lose one's temper is to get super angry
super fast with no sense of control
right so some people like you just say
one wrong word when they blow up like
they don't they have no control and I
guess so angry and you know I'm not
really sure what happened well the guy
just blew his fuse I don't know what
happened he blew his fuse it was very
sudden very angry out of control okay to
reinvent the wheel so sometimes people
say oh you know what this car could be
much better I'm going to design a brand
new car and you try and you try and you
try to make it better and then somebody
says to him well while you try to
reinvent the wheel just improve this one
don't create something brand new so to
reinvent the wheel is to try to do
something new that's already being done
but usually it also means to be over
complicated so if you say to somebody
look we're not trying to reinvent the
wheel we just try to make it better
something better so basically be more
simple don't over complicate it we're
not creating something brand new we're
just taking something that already
exists we're just making it a little bit
better so don't try to reinvent the
wheel okay don't try to be too
complicated about something okay
if you run out of steam so in the old
days a lot of machinery was run by steam
steam is when you take water and you
heat it and it becomes gas and that gas
you should turn turn binds and then the
turbines work the machine so if you run
out of steam if there's no more steam
then the Machine does the turbine stop
the machine stops moving so we talk
about a person or a group etc or
movement anything if it runs out of
steam basically it loses its energy it
loses its passion it loses its drive and
it just slowly stops until it completely
dies out and nobody does it anymore so
if you have a political movement okay so
everybody's angry at the new president
for example and there's marches and
there's protests and there's
people writing articles and there's
people on TV screaming and shouting but
over time this anger just runs out of
steam or the movement or the protest
just run out of steam and fewer people
show up to the marches and fewer people
are rioting on their social networks and
fewer people are screaming and shouting
until eventually nobody cares and the
president does whatever he wants to do
okay because the movement ran out of
steam now if you know how to push
somebody's button so button button
button and then you make the machines
work right if you know how to push a
person's buttons you know how to make
this person angry you know how to make
this person frustrated so usually if you
think about it especially family members
if you think about like mothers and
daughters mothers and daughters from my
experience know exactly which buttons to
push to get which reactions and they
always push each other's buttons and
they make each other crazy so but that's
the nature of family tea right and to be
on the same wavelength so if two people
are on the same this is the wavelength
right and then you have two different
wavelengths if you and I are on the same
wavelength then we're thinking the same
we basically have the same ideas we have
the same goals we want to reach in a
meeting there's a whole bunch of people
and I say you know I think we should do
a and the other person says yeah I agree
so she and I are on the same wavelength
we're thinking the same way we see the
same and result and we see the same
process to get there so we're going to
work together because we're thinking
alike we're on the same wavelength okay
so there you go 10 idioms from
technology these are actually used in
everyday conversations some of them can
be used in writing for example blow a
fuse don't put that in your IELTS or
TOEFL essay it's a little bit too casual
but to be on the same wavelength
you can use it reinvent the wheel you
can use it except make sure you know
which are formal which are casual etc if
you have any questions about this about
any of these idioms please go to Ingrid
comm and join the forum you can ask your
questions there there's also a quiz you
can take to test your knowledge of these
idioms
and of course if you like the video
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some new videos bye bye