B
Idioms beginning with "B"
Part of speech, explanation, example sentences, pronunciation
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Contents of B:
[body blow] {n.}, {informal}
A great disappointment; a bitter failure.
When he failed to get on the team it came as a body blow to him.
[body English] {n.}, {informal}
The wishful attempt to make a ball move in the right direction after it has been hit or let go, by twisting the body in the desired direction.
He tried to help the putt fall by using body English.
[bog down] {v. phr.}
To be immobilized in mud, snow, etc.; slow down.
Our research got bogged down for a lack of appropriate funding.
Don't get bogged down in too much detail when you write an action story.
[bog down], [to get bogged down] {v. phr.}, {mostly intransitive or passive}
1. To stop progressing; to slow to a halt.
Work on the new building bogged down, because the contractor didn't deliver the needed concrete blocks.
2. To become entangled […]
[boggle the mind] {v. phr.}, {informal}
To stop the rational thinking process by virtue of being too fantastic or incredible.
It boggles the mind that John should have been inside a flying saucer!
[boil down] {v.}
1. To boil away some of the water from; make less by boiling.
She boiled down the maple sap to a thick syrup.
The fruit juice boiled down until it was almost not good for jelly.
2. To reduce the length of; cut down; shorten.
[…]
[boil over] {v. phr.}
1. To rise due to boiling and overflow down the sides of a pan or a pot.
"Watch out!" Jane cried. "The milk is boiling over on the stove!"
2. To become enraged to the point of being unable to contain oneself.
* /John took a […]
[boiling point] {n.}
1. The temperature at which a liquid boils.
The boiling point of water is 272 Fahrenheit.
2. The time when you become very angry.
He has a low boiling point.
* /After being teased for a long time, John reached the […]
[bolt from the blue] {n. phr.}
Something sudden and unexpected; an event that you did not see coming; a great and usually unpleasant surprise; shock.
We had been sure she was in Chicago, so her sudden appearance was a bolt from the blue.
* /His […]