Miscellaneous Vocabulary (G) MCQs

The difference between the value of the imports and exports that a nation makes.

Completely bald.

A 20th century slang term, meaning wife.

To the limit of one's efforts - to the last extremity.

Pitch black.

Interactions that occur between black people, notably crime that is perpetrated by one black person against another.

The 'offer' being 'do as I say or I'll kill you'.

Carry on with what you are doing - it will give me an excuse to behave badly.

To state a fact in a way that allows no doubt.

Many small amounts accumulate to make a large amount.

Literal meaning, alluding to the variety in qualities of humankind.

Have many more happy days, especially birthdays.

May you experience much upheaval and trouble in your life.

The real thing - not a substitute.

I'm to blame.

A wave effect formed when crowds in stadia rise up and down from their seats in succession.

With might and main is 'with all of one's strength'.

Great things may come from small beginnings.

An irrelevant argument.

The condition of having a body weight high enough to pose a severe risk to health.

Said in reply to someone who has reported doing something that is considered to be obviously foolish.

A feast day that falls on the same day of the week each year but which has a date which varies.

People of energetic demeanour, who initiate change and influence events.

Whatever one does in one's life is one's own responsibility and cannot be changed.

Keep quiet - say nothing.

Literal meaning.

Excellent - the highest quality.

Affectionate term for a friend.

To display one's opinions and beliefs.

Childish and weakly sentimental.

Literal meaning (it means exactly what it says)

Literal meaning, but usually used for comic effect.

The slogan of the John Lewis Partnership from the 1920s.

A refusal to accept a proposition - equivalent to 'nothing doing'.

Without restrictions or rules.

Human beings do not thrive when isolated from others.

A 'nosy parker, sometimes spelled nosey parker', is a person of an overly inquisitive or prying nature.

Stupid.

Worthless.

'No points' - the lowest possible score awarded to performers in the Eurovision Song Contest.

This is the rebuke levelled at the disciples of Christ, when seeming to doubt his divinity.

God's body.

Okay.

An old man, especially one who is eccentric, curmudgeonly or grotesque.

Old-fashioned; hackneyed.

To be in luck; in a prosperous happy state.

On the quiet.

'On the wagon' - abstaining from alcohol.

Let us try again one more time.

A performer or act, usually a singer or band, who has just one popular success.

A final drink taken just before leaving on a journey.

A time when criticism or other negative actions may be expected, with no mercy shown.

Given the sack, i.e. asked to leave your job (see 'get the sack').

Saved from great danger.

Pretty damn quick.

Items of quality offered to those who aren't cultured enough to appreciate them.

An adage to encourage us to think long-term and look after future generations.

The power children have, by repeated nagging, of influencing their parents to buy advertised or fashionable items.

Dwindle away to nothing.

Attend to one's own faults, in preference to pointing out the faults of others.

A share in an activity, or in its profits.

Having a narrow chest with a protruding breastbone - alluding to the appearance of pigeons.

'Pig's ear' is Cockney rhyming slang for beer.

Very hot, usually referring to food.

An easy, uncomplicated course.

Feet.

Description of the practice of using speech that conforms to liberal or radical opinion by avoiding language which might cause offence to or disadvantage social minorities.

Close enough to go directly to a target.

A race, usually a horse-race, in a direct line across countryside.

Lies.

Port out, starboard home.

Take one's chance as to what meal one is served when accepting another's hospitality.

To commend an opinion to those who already accept it.

Now chiefly used to mean absurd; ridiculous.

Induce someone to join the military.

Make every possible effort.

To move home.

Improve your situation by your own efforts.

A request to be quiet.

Deliberately causing mayhem.

Die.

Embark on a journey or task with purpose and gusto.

Hurt your feelings or upset your plans.

Time in which individual attention is given to an otherwise neglected child or partner.

Something given in return for an item of equivalent value - like tit for tat.

Talk.

A common rabble - the hoi polloi.

A reference to the sometimes violent natural world, in which predatory animals unsentimentally cover their teeth and claws with the blood of their prey as they kill and devour them.

In earlier times a church festival or saint's day; more recently, any special day.

A thing which has neither rhyme nor reason makes no sense, from either a poetic or logical standpoint.

Verse from a nursery rhyme.

Bring something to an end.

Separating something from usual judgement and guaranteeing its protection, especially the funds of a project.

Horse dung.

Aggressively argumentative, and sometimes violent, behaviour indulged in by drivers when annoyed by other road users' actions.

To take from one merely to give to another; to discharge one debt by incurring another.

An event that is disreputable or strange.

To 'run amok', which is sometimes spelled 'run amuck', is to behave in a wild or unruly manner.

Escape from injury; avoid harm, especially to one's body.

Without incurring payment: or escaping without punishment.

Be firm and resolute.

The full version of the acronym SWALK.

An elderly person; one who is past the age of retirement.

To be ignored or ostracised.

Separate the good from the bad.

All of it; the whole thing.

A lengthy, improbable and ultimately pointless story, often told in an attempt at humour.

One's legs, used as a means of transport.

A hopeful attempt.

To abscond, or depart quickly.

To make short work of - to give little consideration to.

Sleep very soundly.

Sleep well.

Sloane Rangers, or latterly just Sloanes or Sloanies are upper class and fashion-conscious but conventional young people, living in the more expensive parts of West London.

A scruffy or dirty person; one who washes rarely.

Betrayed or cheated.

A rogue or scamp.

A spelling contest.

To use a public lavatory.

Entirely new - fresh or unused.

Stop and give me your valuables.

A loyal and reliable friend.

Using the understanding gained by major thinkers who have gone before in order to make intellectual progress.

Someone 'steals your thunder' when they use your ideas or inventions to their own advantage.

A narrow-minded or unprogressive person; one who lacks initiative.

A difficult situation.

Cruel and unfeeling.

A decoy bird, or a police informer, or criminal's look-out or decoy.

Be enthusiastic to free oneself from the restrictions that bar one's progress.

An acceptance of the unpredictable fortunes of existence, often spoken with an air of weary resignation.

A type of cuisine that combines both meat and seafood (especially lobster and steak), or restaurants that serve such cuisine.

Surfing (a.k.a.

Take control of a situation.

Carry off the honours.

Tease or make fun of.

Ronald Reagan; referring to his ability to get into politically 'dirty' areas but emerge with his reputation and popularity unscathed and with no 'mud' sticking.

The catchphrase on the banner shown at the end of Looney Tunes cartoons.

Originally meaning the central aperture of the eye.

Close interrogation.

A literal view of the subject of remarriage.

The people habitually suspected or arrested in response to a crime.

Literal meaning (it means exactly what it says)

The weather is cold.

Through all forms of obstacle that are put in one's way.

The span of a life.

This slogan was used by US President Clinton to publicize his plans for mandatory life sentences for those convicted of a third violent offence.

Make or take up a challenge, or demonstrate one's willingness to join an enterprise.

No one is so powerful that they can stop the march of time.

Attacking imaginary enemies.

Inoperative; broken.

Something that is 'toe-curlingly embarrassing' is discomforting enough as to make one squirm and curl one's toes in response.

Snobbish; supercilious; stuck-up.

In an ironic manner, not meant to be taken seriously.

At once.

Someone who can be relied on to provide support and comfort.

The ultimatum given by children who call on houses to solicit gifts at Halloween.

To knowingly refuse to acknowledge something which you know to be real.

Reverse the positions of adversaries.

All of the time - twenty four hours/day and seven days/week.

With most phrases it is the origin rather than the meaning that is in doubt.

Up the stairs.

Euphemism for pregnant.

An event that is disreputable or strange.

To 'run amok', which is sometimes spelled 'run amuck', is to behave in a wild or unruly manner.

Escape from injury; avoid harm, especially to one's body.

'We have become a grandmother' was UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's statement to the press in 1989, on the birth of her first grandchild, Mark Thatcher's son Michael.

A threat of violence.

Be in charge.

The floozie (or floosie or floozy) in the jacuzzi is the nickname of the bronze statue, properly called Anna Livia, previously in O'Connell Street, Dublin, Ireland.

Ships' goods which are lost at sea.

Alludes to the position of being able to freely observe a situation without being oneself noticed.

For Christ's sake.

Indefinitely.

There is an appropriate time for everything.

Horse dung.

Aggressively argumentative, and sometimes violent, behaviour indulged in by drivers when annoyed by other road users' actions.

To take from one merely to give to another; to discharge one debt by incurring another.