Mainly
111humming and hawing — mainly British, American & Australian hum and haw to take a long time to say something and speak in a way that is not clear, in order to avoid giving an answer. After much hemming and hawing and throat clearing, she announced that she was leaving …
112in spades — mainly American in large amounts or to a very great degree. The thing that you absolutely must have for this job is confidence and Adam has it in spades. I don t get colds often, but when I do I get them in spades …
113iron out the kinks — mainly American to get rid of any problems that you are having with the way that you are doing something. The team was still trying to iron out the kinks in their game in the last quarter …
114lame-duck — mainly American a lame duck someone, especially an elected official, who cannot influence events any more, often because their job is going to end soon. Having lost control of Congress, he was in danger of becoming a lame duck president. (always… …
115let the genie out of the bottle — mainly American to allow something bad to happen which cannot then be stopped. With the Internet, we really let the genie out of the bottle. People now have unlimited access to all manner of material …
116lickety-split — mainly American, informal very quickly. He drove off lickety split down the highway …
117march to a different drummer — mainly American, British to behave in a different way or to believe in different things from the people around you. While most of the country supported military action, Santini was marching to a different drummer …
118on the button — mainly American, informal if something happens at a particular time or is a particular amount on the button, it happens at exactly that time or is exactly that amount. We always sit down to eat at 6.00 on the button …
119on the lam — mainly American, informal running away from the police or someone in authority in order to escape going to prison. He finally gave himself up to the police after 12 years on the lam …
120on the nose — mainly American exactly right, often an exact amount of money or time. We arrived at three o clock on the nose. Her description of the play really hit it on the nose …
