Idioms: education by Pilar Del Casale

"To know something inside out"

pilarenglishteacher2024 — 2025-09-15 13:08:52 UTC

Definition: to know everything about a subject

Example:

"Never have I seen such a Taylor Swift fan! She knows Taylor's life and professional achievements inside out!"

Collocations:

subjects or fields:
- To know the rules inside out
- To know the law inside out
With work and studies:
- To know the material inside out
- To know the exam topics inside out
With places and things
- To know the city inside out
- To know the machine inside out

2025-09-22 11:55:56 UTC

(To) Pull your socks up

To make an effort to improve your work or behaviour because is not good enough.

Example:

"He needs to pull his socks up if he is to make a success of his career"

To have something/nothing/little/a lot to show for something

2025-09-22 12:00:24 UTC

If you have something/nothing to show for your work or effort, you have/have not won any advantage from it.

Example:

I've been trying to write this essay all day and I have nothing to show for it.

Come on in/by leaps and bounds

2025-09-22 12:01:57 UTC

If someone or something gets better by/in leaps and bounds, he,she, it imprimes very quickly.

E.g.: Her Spanish has come on in leaps and bounds this year.

Night after night

2025-09-22 12:02:15 UTC

Every night for a period of time.

Example: She stayed in night after night studying for a Phonetics exam.

Turn over a new leaf

2025-09-22 12:02:33 UTC

If you say that you are going to turn over a new leaf, you mean that you are going to start to behave in a better or more acceptable way.

Example

The student realized he was in the wrong and promised to turn over a new leaf.

Two weeks/three years/four times running

2025-09-22 12:03:16 UTC

Definition: consecutive years or weeks, indicating a period of time that has passed without interruption or a change in the sequence.

Example: “I’ve been working on this project for two years running, and it’’s still not finished.”

Apply yourself

2025-09-22 12:06:09 UTC

To make oneself work hard in order to complete something successfully

Example: If you apply yourself, you might be able to finish the project on time.

Collocations

Apply yourself to

Over the next months, he applied himself to improving the technique.

To show signs of something

2025-09-22 12:08:09 UTC

To demonstrate indications or behaviors that suggest a certain characteristic, development, or state exists.

Example: A student showing signs of struggling might be disengaged, have poor attendance, or show difficulties with emotional regulation.

To indicate or suggest: The phrase suggests that something is hinted at or has begun to manifest.

To exhibit evidence: It means that there are observable pieces of evidence pointing to a particular outcome or quality.

To become apparent: Something that was previously hidden or unobservable is now beginning to be noticed.

Go over sb's head

2025-09-22 12:08:10 UTC

To be difficult or strange for someone to understand.

E.g.: Some of what the teacher said went over the children's head.

Melina, Melissa and Agustina

2025-09-22 12:09:14 UTC

With flying colours
Definition: If you do something, such as pass an exam with flying colours, you do it very successfully.
Example: If you read the material for the exam, you will probably pass with flying colours.
Collocation: To pass an exam/course.
Scrape through something: To succeed in something but with a lot of difficulty.
Example: He managed to scrape through his funal exams.
Collocation: Scrape through an exam.
Tell somebody off
Definition: To speak angrily to someone because they have done something wrong.
Example: The teacher told me off for swearing.
Collocation: Tell somebody off for something/for doing something.
A matter of routine/course
Definition: If something is done as a matter of course, it is a usual part of the way in which things are done and is not special
Example: Students sing a welcome song as a matter of routine/course.
Cut something out
Definition: Removing curriculum content that is no longer relevant or effective.
Example: She cut out the irrelevant information from the textbook chapter.
Mark somebody down
Definition: To reduce the mark given to somebody in an exam.
Example: She was marked down because of poor grammar.

make heads or tails of

2025-09-22 12:09:26 UTC

(This phrase is usually used in the negative to convey the opposite.

make heads or tails of

To (attempt to) understand something or someone

Ex: I've read all the bibliography and I can't make head or tails of the subject yet.

make heads or tails (out) of (someone or something)

To understand someone or something.

Ex: After spending hours working with the

new piece of software, I still could not make heads or tails out of it.

HOLD SOMEBODY BACK

2025-09-22 12:09:31 UTC

• To keep somebody from advancing to the next stage, grade, level.

She was held back in first grade

Next to nothing

2025-09-22 12:09:46 UTC

Very little, almost nothing.

Example: If you consider all the time I need to prepare for my lessons and homework, I make next to nothing per hour teaching English.

It is not for lack/ want of trying

2025-09-22 12:13:29 UTC

It is used to say that someone's lack of success is not due to a failure to try to succeed.