Saturday, November 05, 2011

Verbal Proficiency Text For Real Americans

Alright foreigners, you can become American citizens if you score eighty percent on this simple vocabulary test of common American expressions.

We'll grade this on the very latest HAL S-360 Computer

A day late and a dollar short

Ace in the hole

Adding-up (or "not adding up")

Alpha dog

Analog

Aping (something or someone)

Back door man

Balk

Breech

Brush (with - )

Catch you on the flip side

Chain reaction

Chomping at the bit

Close shave

Close the deal

Close to the vest

Comb through - -

Come-to-Jesus moment

Coming to a head

Cracking the glass ceiling

Creative accounting

Credulity

Critical mass

Curve Ball

Cut to the chase

Cut to the quick

Decipher

Desegregate

Detente

Disintermediate

Dire straits

Dive

Do I have to spell it out?

Don’t get radical

Ears perking up

Ecology

Every dog has his day

Expecting fall-out

Expedite

Explicit

Facilitate

Feather-bedding

Feeling blue

Filibuster

Finalize

Flag-waver

Flake-out

Flash points

Flying the coup

Folded (as in "He or they folded")

Four-flusher

Gaping

Generic

Give the green flag

Gratuity

Green as grass

greenback

Half-assed

Half-baked

Hand in the till

Hard-wired

He’s an open book

Hitting below the belt

Hyperbola, hyperbolic (non generic0

Ice queen

Incendiary

Incentivize

Incredulous

Infinitessable

Infra-structure

It doesn’t pass the smell test

Kosher, not kosher

Landing on your feet

Lay your cards on the table

Leg-up

Let the deal go down

Liberal (generic definition0

Like a dog without a bone

Lion’s share

Lip service

Log jam

Long in the tooth

Long shot

Love nest

Man up

Medical care rationing

Monkey wrench (colloquial)

Muddying the waters

Negatori

Nosed out

Not cool

Not fit for mixed company

O C D

Off the record

On the level

On the quiet

Oreo

Organ donor (colloquial)

Out of left field

Out of sight

Over-kill

Own the thing

Panning out, and not panning out

Paper trail

Pardon my French

Pay dirt

Percentage, no percentage

Peppery

Pie-hole

Pink noise

Playing the race card

Plugging leaks

Political correctness

Pony-up

Pro-rated

Pull in your claws

Pulling out (in a colloquial sense)

Pull up stakes

Putting in your two cents worth

Purring like a kitten

Putting a thing or person down

Ranked, ranked-out

Ratting-out

Recidivism

Reckoning

Reverberations

Right off the bat

Right on, right on the money

Rip-off

Room temperature IQ

Running the table

Road block

Saccrine (non generic)

Sand in your sugar

See the hand writing on the wall

Serpentine

Short circuit

Sifting information

Singing like a canary

Six feet under

Sketchy

Smokey bear

Smelling blood

Speaking out of turn

Stepping over the line

Stone-wall

Striking-out (most common)

Swimming with the fishes

Take with a grain of salt

Ten – four

That doesn’t fit

That’s a little too blue

The game is in the refrigerator

The thin blue line

That doesn't relate

Throwing strikes

Thumbs down

Thumbs up

Too many strikes against him

Transitioning

Trump

Two-bit

Ultravires

Under-dog

Watering hole

Wearing your heart on your sleeve

Wet behind the ears

Whistle-blower

Wrap this up

Yes-men

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