Each day, this page will automatically display
a random entry from the Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms.
Here is today's entry. If the idiom is marked with a 
symbol, then this
indicates that the idiom is particularly frequent in the Bank of English corpus.
If you describe someone or something as a ball and chain, you mean that they restrict your freedom to do what you want.
If you listen to members of the same sex talking to each other, you're likely to hear a man describe his wife as a ball and chain.
Our national debt is an economic ball and chain dragging us down, keeping longer term interest rates high.
| In the past, prisoners were sometimes chained by the leg to a heavy metal ball to prevent them from escaping. |
the ball is in your courtIf you tell someone that the ball is in their court, you are pointing out that it is their responsibility to decide what to do next in a particular situation.
The ball's now in your court. You have to decide what you're going to do to get the most from your money, given the level of risk you feel you can tolerate.
The ball is now in his court. I, and indeed others, have told him quite clearly what we think. He has to decide.
| This expression refers to the game of tennis. |
If you say that someone or something is behind the eight ball, you mean that they are in trouble or in a difficult position.
For one thing, you don't need a secondary school education to work out that if a child doesn't get the basics in primary school they are way behind the eight ball.
| In the game of pool, the `eight ball' is a ball with a number 8 on it, which players have to pot last. If the eight ball is between the cue ball and the ball which the player is trying to hit, the player is likely to hit the eight ball first, which is a foul shot. |
a crystal ballIf you say that someone is looking into a crystal ball, you mean that they are trying to predict the future.
So why look in the crystal ball for next year, when we can look at the record of what has happened?
What you really need to help you select your new car is a crystal ball to tell you how much it will be worth two, three or four years down the road.
He was showing off, although in this case it hardly required a crystal ball gazer to predict the result.
Can I ask you now to do a bit of crystal ball gazing? How high do you think the price of oil could go?
| A crystal ball is a glass ball used by some traditional fortune-tellers to predict the future. They say that they can see visions of future events within the ball. |
If you say that someone has dropped the ball, you are criticizing them for something foolish or incompetent that they have done.
Lafferty, instead of really being helpful, had tried to pass off the new arrival's sponsorship duties to his staff, and the staff dropped the ball.
There are people who'd like to see me fall, I know that. But I'm not afraid. I won't drop the ball.
have a ballIf you have a ball, you enjoy yourself and have a really good time.
The boys were sitting happily on the ground. The burner was blazing, the kettle was on and, going by the gales of laughter, they were having a ball.
Why not go out and see if there's some place we can dance? Let's go and have a ball.
I've enjoyed every minute of politics. I've had a ball.
| In this expression, a `ball' is a formal dance. |
If you describe a situation as a new ball game or a different ball game, you mean that it has changed so much that people will have to change the way they deal with it or consider it.
`What happens if you find out, as seems probable, that we have a case of sabotage on our hands?' `Then it's a new ball game, Bruce. We'll have to trace the crime itself back to its authors.'
Politically, we're not yet there and we don't know the timetable of the crisis. But in the end of it, it will be a whole new ball game.
If military force were to be used, then that could be a completely different ball game.
| `Ball game' is often used in American English to refer to a game of baseball. |
If you describe someone as on the ball, you mean that they are alert and deal with things in an intelligent way.
Some clubs struggle in their attempts to raise money. A few are on the ball and make a thoroughly professional job of it.
You can't bumble along in this business. You have to be on the ball.
| In football, the player who is on the ball has the ball at their feet and is in control of it. |
play ballIf you agree to play ball with someone, you agree to do what they have asked you to do, or you agree to work with them in order to achieve something that you both want. Compare play hardball; see hardball.
The Association of British Insurers has threatened to withdraw its support if the banks and building societies refuse to play ball.
The indirect message to Japan's foreign minister appeared to be that, if Japan would not play ball with Russia on economic co-operation, Russia would look for friends elsewhere.
`Boys, I want to say that I appreciate the way you've played ball with me,' she declared, `and in return you can be sure that I aim to play ball right back.'
set the ball rollingIf you set the ball rolling or start the ball rolling, you start an activity or you do something which other people will join in with later. You can also get the ball rolling and keep the ball rolling.
A fierce price war is now underway with all the big supermarket rivals cutting prices. Sainsbury set the ball rolling last week with 30 per cent discounts on a wide range of brands.
Lord Mackay started the ball rolling on judicial openness when he abolished rules barring judges from speaking in public.
Once you get the ball rolling, everyone wants to be involved.
If you take the ball and run with it, you take an idea or plan that someone else has started and you develop it in order to see if it will be successful or useful.
Whatever he does in that hour is up to him. If he studies, fine. If he stares at the walls, well there's nothing we can do. He's the one who has to take the ball and run with it.
In a couple of months all our efforts will be forgotten unless other people pick up the ball and run.
Political theorists picked up the idea of liberty and ran with it down novel and experimental constitutional paths.
Any competent programmer could do it on a home computer and I'm hoping that someone else will take this and run with it because I haven't had the time.
| The game referred to here is American football. |
If you refer to the whole ball of wax, you are referring to the whole of something or to a number of different things which form a whole. This expression is used mainly in American English; the usual British expression is the whole caboodle.
Perry wanted it all, the whole ball of wax. He wanted the Society for himself.
Let's just say that without you and him, there's nothing at all. You two are the whole ball of wax. And your uncle sure as hell knows that.
