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Adam Makkai
[blue in the face]{adj. phr.}, {informal} Very angry or upset; excited and very emotional. •/Tom argued with Bill until he was blue in the face./ •/Mary scolded Jane until she was blue in the face, but Jane kept on using Mary’s paints./
[blue Monday]{n.} A Monday when you have to work after a happy weekend. •/It was blue Monday and John nodded sleepily over his books./ •/Housewives sometimes wish they could sleep through blue Monday./
[blue-pencil]{v.} To edit. •/The editor blue-penciled John’s manuscript./
[bluff] See: CALL ONE’S BLUFF.
[blurt out]{v. phr.} To suddenly say something even if one was not planning to do so, or if it was not expected of them. •/"My brother Bob is in jail," Tony blurted out, before anybody could stop him./
[blush] See: AT FIRST BLUSH.
[board] See: ACROSS THE BOARD, COLLEGE BOARDS, GO BY THE BOARD or PASS BY THE BOARD, ON BOARD, SANDWICH BOARD.
[boat] See: BURN ONE’S BRIDGES also BURN ONE’S BOATS, IN THE SAME BOAT, MISS THE BOAT, ROCK THE BOAT.
[bobby-soxer]{n.} A teen-aged girl. (1940s idiom) •/My two daughters, age 13 and 14, are typical bobby-soxers./
[bob up] See: POP UP(1).
[body] See: KEEP BODY AND SOUL TOGETHER.
[body blow]{n.}, {informal} A great disappointment; a bitter failure. •/When he failed to get on the team it came as a body blow to him./
[body English]{n.}, {informal} The wishful attempt to make a ball move in the right direction after it has been hit or let go, by twisting the body in the desired direction. •/He tried to help the putt fall by using body English./
[bog down]{v. phr.} To be immobilized in mud, snow, etc.; slow down. •/Our research got bogged down for a lack of appropriate funding./ •/Don’t get bogged down in too much detail when you write an action story./
[bog down, to get bogged down]{v. phr.}, {mostly intransitive or passive} 1. To stop progressing; to slow to a halt. •/Work on the new building bogged down, because the contractor didn’t deliver the needed concrete blocks./ 2. To become entangled with a variety of obstacles making your efforts unproductive or unsatisfying. •/The novelist wrote tittle last summer because she got bogged down in housework./
[boggle the mind]{v. phr.}, {informal} To stop the rational thinking process by virtue of being too fantastic or incredible. •/It boggles the mind that John should have been inside a flying saucer!/
[boil] See: MAKE ONE’S BLOOD BOIL or MAKE THE BLOOD BOIL.
[boil down]{v.} 1. To boil away some of the water from; make less by boiling. •/She boiled down the maple sap to a thick syrup./ •/The fruit juice boiled down until it was almost not good for jelly./ 2. To reduce the length of; cut down; shorten. •/The reporter boiled the story down to half the original length./ 3. To reduce itself to; come down to; be briefly or basically. •/The whole discussion boils down to the question of whether the government should fix prices./
[boil over]{v. phr.} 1. To rise due to boiling and overflow down the sides of a pan or a pot. •/"Watch out!" Jane cried. "The milk is boiling over on the stove!"/ 2. To become enraged to the point of being unable to contain oneself. •/John took a lot of abuse from his boss, but after 25 minutes he suddenly boiled over and told him what he thought of him./