12 English Phrasal Verbs and Idioms for Learning & Improving 4 skills | Lesson 3 – Intermediate Level

This idiom is usually used with the verbs stay and keep.

• Ex: It’s important for all the players on a soccer team to stay on their toes.
• Ex: We’d better keep on our toes while we’re walking along the dark portions of this street.

• Ex: Juan is getting along very well in his English studies.
• Ex: How is Mr. Richards getting along after his long illness?

• Ex: You’ll have to speak a little louder. Mrs. Evans is hard of hearing.
• Ex: Please don’t shout. I’m not hard of hearing.
• Ex: Listening to loud music too much can make you hard of hearing.

• Ex: I’m glad that we see eye to eye on the matter of the conference location.
• Ex: A husband and wife don’t always see eye to eye with each other, but a good marriage can survive small disagreements.

• Ex: I don’t want to see a movie now. I have in mind going to the park.
• Ex: It’s up to you what we eat tonight. Do you have anything in mind?

• Ex: I didn’t know that Paula doesn’t like vegetables. We should bear that in mind next time we invite her for dinner.
• Ex: Please keep in mind that you promised to call Stan around noon.

• Ex: For once I was able to win a game of golf against Steve, who is a much better player than I am. Dad, for once would you please let me drive the new car?

Ex: The accident happened when a box of firecrackers went off accidentally.

Ex: For what time did you set the alarm clock to go off tomorrow morning?

Ex: Vince went off without saying good-bye to anybody; I hope he wasn’t angry.

• Ex: He still bites his nails now and then, but soon he’ll grow out of the habit.
• Ex: The need for the salary committee grew out of worker dissatisfaction with the pay scale

• Ex: If we can’t find a larger apartment soon, we’ll just have to make the best of it right here.
• Ex: Even though the Martinez family is having financial problems, they make the best of everything by enjoying the simple pleasures of life.

• Ex: The rope was two feet longer than we needed, so we cut off the extra length.
• Ex: The operator cut our long-distance phone conversation off after two minutes.

For the second definition, the idiom is usually separated by the pronoun it.

• Ex: The child likes to cut out pictures form the newspaper and to paste them in a notebook.
• Ex: He kept bothering her, so finally she told him to cut it out. However, he wouldn’t knock it off until her larger brother appeared.