If you've ever taken business courses, the term "cash cow" might be familiar to you. Anything or anyone that can generate a large amount of profit for the company can be known as a cash cow.
But what does a cow have to do with it? It's basically a metaphor. Think about if you invest your money to buy a cow, it will continue to produce milk (money) even after your investment has been paid off. It will keep making money for many more years. It's a cash cow!
Have you ever played or heard of the game Candy Crush? If you haven't, it's a match-three puzzle game with many levels. I've never played it but I know a lot of people who are addicted. Candy Crush was created by King game company and the game has made the company A LOT of money. We can say Candy Crush is the company's "cash cow."
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Valentine's Day is approaching in a few days. How are you going to express your love to your Valentine? Whether you're writing a card, an email, or face to face, below are some other ways to say "I love you" to someone.
Are these expressions familiar to you? Let me point out that "head over heels" is an idiom meaning to be in love with someone very much. It is commonly used with the word "fall." For example, "I'm falling head over heels for her." Also, you may have heard the phrase "You complete me." It became very popular after the movie Jerry McGuire with the actor Tom Cruise. Have you ever seen that movie? "You complete me" means you are incomplete without that person. That person makes your life perfect and gives you meaning to your life. Of course, saying a simple "I love you" never gets old! How will you celebrate Valentine's Day this year? Kick back is a phrasal verb meaning to relax or chill out. When you come home from work, sometimes you just want to lie down on the sofa and relax. You might also sit on your sofa, lean back, put your hands behind your head and stretch out. You're usually very relaxed when you do this. Kick back simply means to relax. For example, "It rained all weekend so we kicked back and relaxed at home." "Why are you always so stressed? Just learn to kick back sometimes!" **Kick back can also be used as a phrasal noun to mean a bribe (money or favors given to someone in return for something else. Usually dishonest and secret situations.)
Imagine you're walking down the street and all of a sudden you see a pig flying in the sky. That would probably shock and scare you as it's impossible for a pig to fly (because they don't have wings or a superman cape!).
This is the meaning of the idiom, WHEN PIGS FLY. We use it to suggest something will very unlikely ever happen or have no chance of happening. These situations will only occur when pigs fly but we know pigs will NEVER fly! "I'll probably win the lottery when pigs fly." (It's impossible I will ever win the lottery) "I'll go on a date with that man when pigs fly!"( It's highly unlikely I will go on a date with that man). Can you make a sentence with this idiom? I had a friend who told me recently she was "burned out" from taking care of her baby boy. I think we all get "burned out" from time to time, whether it's taking care of our kids, our elderly parents, going to school, going to work or dealing with life, we all get tired sometimes! "Burned out" is an idiom, meaning feeling tired from overwork. It can be physical or emotional exhaustion. It comes from the verb, "burn." To burn something means to put it on fire, when there's no fire left, we say it's "out".
Think of a gas stove, when we use it a lot we use more and more fuel, soon there will be no more fuel left to make the stove work, so it's "out". The same thing with our bodies, when we have no more fuel or energy left, we also struggle to keep going, we're tired! If you're burned out, please take a break! Are you burned out from work this week?Do you know who else is burned out this week? Our dog, Maggie. Our dog Maggie is scared of EVERYTHING! Sometimes we take her for a walk and she gets startled by a small leaf. She's a very silly girl. One thing she's extremely scared of is the iron. In the mornings when my husband irons his clothes for work, she gets so scared of the noise from the iron that she jumps on top of me or hides under the blanket. Yesterday morning my husband called her a "scaredy-cat," which inspired me to do a posting on the meaning of the idiom "scaredy-cat."
Most cats scare easily or "jump" as soon as they hear noise or sense movement. When we call someone a "scaredy-cat" it means that person get scared easily or is afraid of something. (1) "You're afraid of thunder? You're such a scaredy-cat!" (2) "Tracy went camping all by herself. She's definitely not a scaredy-cat" (3) "My son is too much of a scaredy-cat to skip class." Although "scaredy-cat" means something, the word "scaredy" can never be used on its own as it doesn't have any meaning when used by itself. Do you think you're a scaredy-cat? |
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