Toeic idioms

so he was sent to 
the principal’s office. 
 That topic is out of bounds during the meeting. We will discuss it later off-line. 
7. Give someone the runaround: not answer a question or request; send a person 
somewhere else for an answer 
She always gives me the runaround when I ask her out. Do you think she’s not 
interested? 
I could tell she didn’t want to answer the question. She just gave me the 
runaround. 
8. Be in the loop/be out of the loop: be included in the communication/not be 
included in the communication 
Please send her copies of the e-mail about this so she is in the loop about this 
new project. 
 I haven’t received any information on this project. I am out of the loop on this. 
10. Screw up: make a big error or mistake 
 She screwed up the order, and we had to start over again. 
 I usually screw up when I’m really tired and I keep working anyway. 
11. Draw the line: establish limits or boundaries 
We have to draw the line with this customer. They are demanding too much. 
Tell them we won’t make any more design changes. 
He drew the line with his teenage son and told him if he got another ticket, he 
couldn’t continue driving. 
12. Knock it off: stop doing “something” 
He has an annoying habit of tapping his fingers on the table, so she asked him to 
knock if off. 
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The children were running around in the library, so the librarian asked them to 
knock it off. 
13. Take something off-line: talk about something privately/keep confidential 
 Let’s take this discussion off-line to deal with the confidential items. 
We need to take this conversation off-line because it’s about the new 
technology for our company, and that isn’t public knowledge yet. 
14. Walk the talk: do what you say you’re going to do 
If you want to be a good leader, you need to walk the talk so your employees 
will know you lead by example. 
She always speaks about the importance of listening, but she doesn’t walk the 
talk because she doesn’t listen very well. 
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UNIT 6. THE NEW ACCOUNTANTS 
Person A: Have you met Anna Wong, the new accountant? 
Person B: Yes, I met her yesterday. She seems to be really on the ball. I think she’s 
a good choice. 
Person A: I agree. The previous guy, Andy, was nice, but he liked to shoot the 
breeze. I don’t think got much done. 
Person B: I think Andy pulled strings to get the job. His brother-in-law is the CFO. 
Person A I heard that he was fired for taking kickbacks from one of our customers. 
Is that true? 
Person B: I don’t know for sure, but that’s what I heard. The new person, Anna 
seems very conservative. She goes by the book. 
Person A: She’s also really on her toes. I asked her to help me with a cost estimate. 
She just eyeballed it and was able to give me a figure right then and 
there. When I went back to redo the figures, it all worked out. 
Person B: I hope that sales for the new product will put us in the black. 
Person A: Me, too. I know that it’s common for a start-up to be in the red in the 
beginning, but I’ll feel better when we reach our sales goals. 
1. Be on the ball: be smart; be intelligent; be a good worker 
 She’s really on the ball. She’s quick, efficient, and does good work. 
 I’m really glad you hired him because he’s on the ball. 
2. Shoot the breeze: make informal conversation 
 I like to shoot the breeze with my friends. Sometimes we just sit and talk. 
 We shot the breeze for a few minutes before we got down to business. 
3. Pull strings: take advantage of connection to achieve a goal 
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He pulled strings to get the job. His father-in-law talked to the company 
president about him. 
She can pull strings whenever she wants something because her brother is the 
CEO of the company. 
4. Kickback: money or favors given in exchange for influence. 
That company was fined for giving a kickback to the politicians in exchange for 
contracts. 
The U.S. government frowns on kickbacks for business. 
5. Go by the book: closely follow procedures or rules 
I want you to go by the book at first. You can get creative later, after you learn 
the process. 
 She’s very careful and methodical. She always goes by the book. 
6. On one’s toes: prepared to quickly move or react 
 He always gives us last minute changes to keep us on our toes. 
If you work in Silicon Valley, you have to stay on your toes because things are 
changing very quickly. 
7. Eyeball it: estimate or guess based on a quick glance. 
 I don’t have a measuring tape, so I’ll just have to eyeball it. 
I don’t have time to look at your proposal very carefully. Is it okay if I just eyeball 
it? 
8. In the red/ in the black: in debt/ not in debt 
 That company is in the red. They may go bankrupt if they keep losing money. 
 One more successful business venture should put us back in the black. 
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UNIT 7. THE START-UP 
Person A: Did you know that Krishna left for a job with that new Internet-based start-
up? 
Person B: Yes, I heard that. I guess he decided to just go for the gold. They gave 
him stock options. 
Person A: I heard his wife also left her job to go to the same company. I guess they 
decided it was time to go for it. They’ve both become dot.commers. 
Person B: I think they took the risk because last year, he was offered a job and stock 
in another start-up company, but he said no, and now the company has 
gone public. He felt he really missed the boat. He would have been a 
millionaire if he had taken that job. 
Person A: Well, it’s a trade-off. I prefer a little more security. I’m not ready to risk it 
all and go for broke. Some of those Internet-based companies make me 
nervous. A lot of them won’t be around long. You know, some of them 
have a really high burn rate. They often go through millions of dollars a 
month in the start-up phase. I prefer working for a bricks-and-mortar 
business. I think it’s important to have a physical presence in the 
marketplace. 
Person B: You may be right, but Krishna is a nice guy. I hope he lands on his feet 
and does really well. 
Person A: Well, nobody twisted his arm. He took the chance, and he know what 
he’s doing. He could always come back here. He was careful not to burn 
his bridges. He gave two weeks notice, and everyone appreciated that. 
Person B: His wife is a talented researcher. If this venture falls through, she should 
have a lot of other job opportunities. It’s not like they come up only once 
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in a blue moon. There are lots of them around today for people with the 
right skills. 
1. Go for the gold: try for a difficult goal. 
 Let’s go for the gold. I want to set high goals this year. 
 She went for the gold when she put down her quarter goals. 
2. Go for it: make an extra effort to meet a goal 
 If we’re going to make this quarter’s quota, we’ll have to really go for it. 
 I told him he would succeed if her really went for it. 
3. Dot.com/ dot.commer: an Internet-based business/ an employee of an Internet-
based business. 
 I don’t think I’m ready to go to a dot.com and work 12 hours a day. 
 He left that big corporation and became a dot.commer because he hopes to 
make a million dollars when the business goes public. 
4. Miss the boat: miss the opportunity 
 He could have bought that stock last week at half the current price. He really 
missed the boat. 
 She missed the boat when he said no to that deal. It turned out to be worth 
millions. 
5. A trade-off: an exchange; the act of giving up one thing to get another 
 If you cut back your hours to have more free time, you’ll make less money. It’s a 
trade-off. 
 She gave up her dream car to buy a house. It was a trade-off. 
6. Burn rate: the rate at which a new company spends money 
 The 10 million dollars of venture capital should last about five months at this 
burn rate. 
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 The burn rate is really high with new Internet companies because marketing 
costs are very high. 
7. Bricks and mortar: a business with a physical building where goods are bought 
and sold, as opposed to an Internet-based business, which sells products over 
the World Wide Web. 
 We’re a bricks-and-mortar business. We still have a retail building where we 
sell our products. 
 Bricks-and-mortar businesses in our town are facing competition from Internet-
based companies. 
8. Land on one’s feet: recover from a problem or difficult challenge 
 His company outsourced his job, but he landed on his feet because he found a 
new position in another department. 
 She managed to land on her feet when she made a career change; in fact, her 
salary is still rising. 
9. Twist someone’s arm: convince or persuade someone to do something 
 I didn’t want to go to the party, but she twisted my arm, so I went. 
 Lisa didn’t want to go to the dance alone, so she called a friend and twisted his 
arm. He finally agreed to go along. 
10. Burn one’s bridges: do something that will hurt or destroy a relationship 
 I wasn’t negative about why I left the job. I didn’t want to burn my bridges. I 
might want to use my old boss as a reference. 
 He burned his bridges when he published that book about the politics at his old 
company. 
11. Fall through: fail or not happen 
 Our plans for the evening fell through, and we ended up staying home. 
 I’m counting on getting that contract; I hope it doesn’t fall through. 
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12. Once in a blue moon: (Something that happens) rarely or very infrequently 
 We weren’t prepared for such a big snowstorm because it only happens once in 
a blue moon around here. 
 He comes to visit once in a blue moon. I haven’t seen him for years.