Native Expressions 1: Good To Know

This is the first of my series of postings on native English expressions. I have taken it from Boyd Lafayette De Mente's book,"Cheater's Guide to Speaking English Like a Native".

1. Wing it:

This expression refers to the wings of a bird. It gives an image of something moving or flying. ‘Wing it’ means to do something or move forward without any specific method or plan, just doing what is appropriate or right at that time.

E.g.

Sarah has no plan. She is just winging it.
The manager did not want us to wing this project. We must have a plan of action.
Okay! If that is what the Chairman wants, we’ll have to wing it!

2.Push Comes to Shove:

This expression refers to reaching a stalemate, when some drastic action is required to make progress.

E.g.

When push comes to shove, he always manages to come up with some workable solution.
We need a new marketing programme before push comes to shove.
Their team is especially good when push comes to shove.

3.Water it Down:

Mixing water with some other liquids to make it thinner or weaker is known as ‘watering it down’. This term is now also used in the sense of making contracts, commitments and comments in general weaker.

E.g.

No sooner was the contract signed that the manager began trying to water it down.
She watered down her criticisms when she saw how upset I was.
If we water down the demands, management may just accept our proposal.

4.Warm up To:

Begin to like someone usually as a result of getting to know them better over a period of time because of something they do or say.

E.g.

Martha really turned me off at the beginning, but I gradually warmed up to her.
During our second meeting, we gradually warmed up to each other.
The new accountant is really difficult to warm up to.

5.Up a Tree:

When a person doesn’t know the answer or has no idea of what to do about a situation, he or she is said to be up a tree where the options are definitely limited. This phrase can be traced to the practice of climbing trees to escape predators or some other danger and then being stuck there.

E.g.

If you do that, you are going to be up a tree for sure!
When it comes to things like that, he is always up a tree.
I got myself up a tree by making a promise I couldn’t keep.