Fish for

Meaning: Ask for or try to get something

in an indirect way

Example: The telephone caller was

fishing for too much information, so I
hung up.

………………………………………………………………….

Fish out
Meaning: Pull something out of a place
Example: She fished a piece of paper out
of the pile on her desk.

…………………………………………………………..

Horse around
Meaning: Play in a loud/rough way
Example: He was horsing around in the
kitchen and broke my favourite bowl.

……………………………………………………………..
Leech off
Meaning: Use someone, or cling to s.o for
personal gain, often not giving anything in
return

Example: He’s leeching off the abilities

of others.

……………………………………………………………………..

Pig out
Meaning: Eat a lot of food at once
Example: Kids tend to pig out on junk
food.

………………………………………………………………….

Wolf down
Meaning: Eat very quickly

Example: Don’t wolf down an entire

chocolate cake; you will get indigestion.

…………………………………………………..
Monkey around
Meaning: To do things in an unserious
way; to play or waste time

Example: We just monkeyed around all

afternoon.

………………………………………………..

Beaver away
Meaning: Work hard doing something
Example: She was beavering away at his
homework until after midnight.

…………………………………………………………………..

Ferret out
Meaning: To find (something, such as
information) by careful searching.
Example: I had to ferret out all the
information for myself.
…………………………………………………….

Worm out of
Meaning: Draw or manipulate
information out of someone

Example: I eventually managed to worm

a few details out of her.

Rat on Meaning: Inform on (someone) to

a person in a position of authority
Example: I never thought John would rat
on me.

……………………………………………….

Rabbit on (UK)
Meaning: Continue talking about
something that is not interesting to the
person you are talking to

Example: John’s always rabbiting on

about his coin collection.
…………………………………………………

Monkey with
Meaning: Bother or interfere with
someone or something

Example: Come on, don’t monkey with my

new laptop.

………………………………………………

Turn turtle
Meaning: Turn upside down; to flip over

Example: A large wave caused our little

boat to turn turtle.

………………………………………………………..

Squirrel away
Meaning: Stash, hide or hoard something
for future use
Example: He had bits of string, cans of
nails and lots of other useful tidbits
squirreled away throughout his garage.

……………………………………………….

Drone on
Meaning: Talk for a long time in a boring
way

Example: I nearly fell asleep while he

was droning on!