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20-letter words containing o, t, r

  • to cross the rubicon — If you say that someone has crossed the Rubicon, you mean that they have reached a point where they cannot change a decision or course of action.
  • to cry your eyes out — If you cry your eyes out, you cry very hard.
  • to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
  • to do your damnedest — If you say that you will do your damnedest to achieve something, you mean that you will try as hard as you can to do it, even though you think that it will take a lot of effort.
  • to fall on deaf ears — If a request falls on deaf ears or if the person to whom the request is made turns a deaf ear to it, they take no notice of it.
  • to fall on your feet — If you say that someone always falls or lands on their feet, you mean that they are always successful or lucky, although they do not seem to achieve this by their own efforts.
  • to flex your muscles — If a group, organization, or country flexes its muscles, it does something to impress or frighten people, in order to show them that it has power and is considering using it.
  • to flog a dead horse — If you say that someone is flogging a dead horse, you mean that they are trying to achieve something impossible.
  • to get your bearings — to find out where one is or to find out what one should do next
  • to get your own back — If you get your own back on someone, you have your revenge on them because of something bad that they have done to you.
  • to give sb their due — You can say 'to give him his due', or 'giving him his due' when you are admitting that there are some good things about someone, even though there are things that you do not like about them.
  • to go the extra mile — If you say that someone is willing to go the extra mile, you mean that they are willing to make a special effort to do or achieve something.
  • to have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they do not like you and they want to make life difficult for you.
  • to hope for the best — If you are in a difficult situation and do something and hope for the best, you hope that everything will happen in the way you want, although you know that it may not.
  • to keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example, when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
  • to keep your hand in — If you do something to keep your hand in, you practise a skill or hobby occasionally in order to remain fairly good at it.
  • to land on your feet — If you say that someone always lands on their feet, you mean that they are always successful or lucky, although they do not seem to achieve this by their own efforts.
  • to leave your/a mark — If someone or something leaves their mark or leaves a mark, they have a lasting effect on another person or thing.
  • to line your pockets — If you say that someone is lining their own or someone else's pockets, you disapprove of them because they are making money dishonestly or unfairly.
  • to make up your mind — If you make up your mind or make your mind up, you decide which of a number of possible things you will have or do.
  • to overstep the mark — If someone oversteps the mark, they behave in a way that is considered unacceptable.
  • to pull your punches — If you say that someone does not pull their punches when they are criticizing a person or thing, you mean that they say exactly what they think, even though this might upset or offend people.
  • to put sth to rights — to make something consistent with justice, correctness, or orderly arrangement
  • to reach new heights — to become higher than ever before
  • to reserve the right — If you say that you reserve the right to do something, you mean that you will do it if you feel that it is necessary.
  • to scrape the barrel — If you say that someone is scraping the barrel, or scraping the bottom of the barrel, you disapprove of the fact that they are using or doing something of extremely poor quality.
  • to show sb the ropes — to show someone how to do a particular job or task
  • to spread your wings — If you spread your wings, you do something new and rather difficult or move to a new place, because you feel more confident in your abilities than you used to and you want to gain wider experience.
  • to stand your ground — If you stand your ground or hold your ground, you continue to support a particular argument or to have a particular opinion when other people are opposing you or trying to make you change your mind.
  • to stick in the craw — to be unacceptable or displeasing to someone
  • to take years off sb — if you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has taken years off someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much younger
  • to tighten your belt — If you have to tighten your belt, you have to spend less money and manage without things because you have less money than you used to have.
  • to waste your breath — If someone says you are wasting your breath, they mean that the person you are talking to will not take any notice and so there is no point saying anything to them.
  • to wear the trousers — If one person in a couple, especially the woman, wears the pants, or in British English wears the trousers, they are the one who makes all the decisions.
  • to weather the storm — If someone weathers the storm, they succeed in reaching the end of a very difficult period without much harm or damage.
  • to work your way swh — If you work your way somewhere, you move or progress there slowly, and with a lot of effort or work.
  • tobacco mosaic virus — a retrovirus causing mosaic disease in members of the nightshade family. Abbreviation: TMV.
  • tom, dick, and harry — the ordinary person; people generally; everyone: They invited every Tom, Dick, and Harry to the party.
  • tom, dick, and jerry — a hot mixed drink containing rum, brandy, egg, nutmeg, and sometimes milk
  • too much information — I don't want to hear any more
  • toothbrush moustache — a short narrow moustache, resembling the filaments of a toothbrush
  • tortoiseshell turtle — hawksbill turtle.
  • townsend's solitaire — a brownish, slender-billed songbird, Myadestes townsendi, of western North America.
  • toxemia of pregnancy — an abnormal condition of pregnancy characterized by hypertension, fluid retention, edema, and the presence of protein in the urine.
  • toxic shock syndrome — a rapidly developing, sometimes fatal infection characterized by sudden onset of fever, gastrointestinal upsets, a sunburnlike rash, and a drop in blood pressure: caused by a Staphylococcus aureus toxin and occurring especially in menstruating women using high-absorbency tampons. Abbreviation: TSS.
  • traditional marriage — Anthropology. the primary established form of marriage recognized in a given country or religious or social group at a given time: In that culture, traditional marriage requires the families of the future bride and groom to engage in ritual visits and exchange gifts.
  • traditional medicine — systems of medicine developed before the era of modern medicine, based on cultural beliefs and practices handed down from generation to generation
  • trailing vortex drag — drag arising from vortices that occur behind a body moving through a gas or liquid
  • transcendental logic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of the mind with reference to its perceptions of external objects and to the objective truth of such perceptions.
  • transfer of training — transfer (def 19).
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