表示die（死亡）的非正式习语

• popped one's clogs

  起源：起源于工业革命时期的北方工厂工人。他们在工厂工作时，只能穿上硬底木屐来保护自己的脚。“pop”是从“cock”（翘起）演变而来的，当他们“翘起”自己的木屐时，木屐里的脚趾头指向天空，因为他们已经死了。

• give up the ghost

  辅助记忆：放弃了灵魂，咽气了，嗝屁了。

• kicked the bucket

  辅助记忆：字面意思“踢打水桶”，联想人被装入水桶一样的容器中——棺材。

• fall off one's perch

  辅助记忆：perch有“栖息地”之意，落入某人的栖息地，入土为安。

• bite the dust

  辅助记忆：字面意思“啃噬尘土”，表达入土的含义。

借用医疗现象的习语

• a sore point/spot

  释义：a subject which someone would prefer not to talk about because it makes them angry or embarrassed——难言之隐

  例句：Try not to mention baldness while he's here - it's a sore spot for him.

• give someone a taste/dose of their medicine

  释义：do the same bad thing to someone that they have done to you in order to show them how unpleasant it is——以其人之道还治其人之身

  例句：Refusing to lend him money now would give him a taste of his own medicine - he's never lent you any.

• a bitter pill to swallow

  释义：unpleasant,but has to be accepted——不得不面对的

  例句：Losing my job was initially a bitter pill to swallow.

• sugar the pill

  释义：do sth to make sth unpleasant more acceptable——让某些不愉悦的事情更容易被接受

  例句：The boss has sugared the overtime pill by offering a large extra payment.

• have itchy feet

  释义：want to travel or move on——世界很大，我想去看看

  例句：I can't stay in one place for more than a year without getting itchy feet.