To abhor

To abhor

to dislike something very much, usually because you think it is immoral. Syn: detest, loathe, abominate, execrate, despise

• Nature abhors a vacuum.

Prov. If there is a gap, something will fill it. Jill: As soon as the beggar who used to work that corner left, another one showed up. Jane: Nature abhors a vacuum.

No nonsense

No nonsense
sensible, practical, straightforward; without nonsense of any kind, not tolerating irrelevancies; direct, efficient, and practical 

• a businesslike no-nonsense approach - sans concession
• a severe no-nonsense look

very serious about doing things in a direct and efficient way without any foolishness or nonsense

• I want to wear something that will make me look like a no-nonsense professional.- professionel
• a doctor who is very no-nonsense
• a no-nonsense attitude
• to have no truck with nonsense - refuser d'avoir affaire à
• to accept no nonsense

Variation around "fade away"

To take a back seat
1. to deliberately become less active, and give up trying to control things

• I'll be happy to take a back seat when Robin takes over.

2. to become less important: take a back seat to

• Other issues must take a back seat to this crisis.- céder le pas
• In my early twenties, politics very much took a back seat to sport and socializing.

To fade away

To disappear slowly

• Her footsteps faded away down the staircase.
• If you don't start eating properly you're going to fade away.

To move/step aside
1. Lit. to move out of someone's way. 

• Would you step aside for my uncle and his walker? 
• We had to step aside for the people in wheelchairs to get by.

2. to leave an official position or job, especially so that someone else can take your place

• The manager announced he is stepping aside.
• Walter stepped aside for a younger person to take over.

To move back

• He moved back to let his partner take over.- se mettre en retrait

To wear away
be eroded

• The face of the statue was wearing away due to acid rain.- s'effacer

To step down
to resign

• The chairman of the committee decided to step down because of ill health.- se retirer, démissionner

To back out

• Sue backed out of helping us paint the house.- renoncer

Chocolate spread

chocolate-flavoured paste= pâte à tartiner
chocolate sprinkles = saupoudré de chocolat
chocolate chips, shave, curl = copeau de chocolat






Muisje
Muisjes are made of aniseed sprinkles with a sugared and colored outer layer. Muisjes, meaning "little mice" in Dutch, are named because the anise seed sprinkles are shaped like little mice, with the stem of the anise seed resembling a tail.

Snug

Snug
Syn: close-fitting, cosy

• if you are snug, you feel warm, comfortable, and safe:
  - nice and snug in front of the fire
• used about a room or a building that is small, warm, and comfortable:
  - a row of snug little cottages
• fitting closely to your body, or fitting closely into a space: well close fitting: bien ajusté

- Her close-fitting dress highlighted her best assets.

Variation around "conflict"

To be at loggerheads

Syn: not in agreement: controversial, divided, irreconcilable, disunited, discordant, at odds (with), in contention, at loggerheads (with someone), at cross purposes, on a collision course.

to be at loggerheads (with someone)
disagreeing very strongly with someone

• The British and Irish governments are still at loggerheads over the deal.- être à couteaux tirés

daggers drawn

• Fred and Joe are daggers drawn. - ennemis jurés

at odds (with)
disagreeing with someone

• She continued to find herself at odds with the chairman.

if things are at odds with each other, they are different or opposite when they should be the same

• This statement is completely at odds with what was said last week.

what's the odds?
Bristish informal: used for saying that something does not matter

• We'll miss the bus, but what's the odds? There's another at 10.00.

Chum

Chum
pal, buddy (slang), bud (slang), bosom buddy, bosom friend, crony (pote)

Penpal

• a friend with whom one corresponds

Chum up with

• to be or become an intimate friend (of)

Get chummy with someone 
become very friendly with someone

• I can't see him getting chummy with Bill, they have absolutely nothing in common

Chum up with
to become friends, to spend time with someone in a friendly way

• She's chummed up with a girl her parents don't approve of

Variations around "wear"

Wear
tired of
 

Weary

• I've grown very weary of your brash attitude.

Wear out

• Hard work will wear you out if you do not take breaks. 
• If I use my toothbrush eight times a day, it will wear out quickly.
• Don't wear yourself out by doing too much in one day.- s'épuiser

Wear

• The car's tyres must be changed, due to wear.-usure

Wear and tear

• The insurance company will pay for accidental damage, but not wear and tear.

Wear away

• Over time, the wind and rain wear away the stone of buildings.- éroder

Wear thin

• He's had that blanket since he was a child; it is worn thin.- être usé jusqu'à la corde

Outwear

• To last longer than; outlast: durable clothing that outwears other brands.

World-weary: déçu, désenchanté, désabusé
To wear out one's welcome: abuser de l'hospitalité de qqun 

Fuzzy

Fuzzy
Fuzzy thinking: pensée confuse

1. a fuzzy picture or image is not clear so that you cannot see all its details
2. covered with short soft hairs or fibres like hair
3. difficult to understand, or not explained clearly
4. full of love and kindness

Fuzzy search
A fuzzy search is a process that locates Web pages that are likely to be relevant to a search argument even when the argument does not exactly correspond to the desired information. A fuzzy search is done by means of a fuzzy matching program, which returns a list of results based on likely relevance even though search argument words and spellings may not exactly match. Exact and highly relevant matches appear near the top of the list. Subjective relevance ratings, usually as percentages, may be given.

A fuzzy matching program can operate like a spell checker and spelling-error corrector. For example, if a user types "Misissippi" into Yahoo or Google (both of which use fuzzy matching), a list of hits is returned along with the question, "Did you mean Mississippi?" Alternative spellings, and words that sound the same but are spelled differently, are given. 

Shooting star

Shooting star
a meteor that makes a line of light as it falls through the sky

Make a wish....

Swarm

Swarm
/swɔː(r)m/ swarm of insects, of people
to go somewhere as part of a large crowd, if insects swarm, they fly together in a large group

• Fans swarmed onto the pitch to celebrate.- affluer
• Bees swarmed around the apple tree.- essaimer
• A swarm of grasshoppers
• swarm about. - fourmiller

Once in a blue moon

Once in a blue moon
Meaning: very rarely

True love happens once in a blue moon...

Very occasionally, the moon actually does appear to be blue. This sometimes occurs after a volcanic eruption, like that of Krakatao in 1883. Dust particles in the atmosphere are normally of a size to diffract blue light, making the moon appear reddish at sunset. Larger volcanic dust particles diffract red light, making the moon appear bluish.

Tempting as it is to suppose that something that happens very rarely, and which is mentioned by name in a phrase that means 'very rarely', is the source of the phrase, it probably isn't.

Actual examples of the moon appearing blue would in fact be the exception that proves the rule, as the 'blue moon' was originally something that was considered not rare but impossible. The two notions, 'a blue moon' and 'the moon is made of green cheese', were synonyms for absurdity, like 'pigs might fly'.

The 'blue moon' expression with the 'impossibility' meaning is old and dates back to mediaeval England; for example, a work by William Barlow, the Bishop of Chichester, the Treatyse of the Buryall of the Masse, 1528, included a sarcastic reference to a blue moon:

Pent-up

Pent-up
Syn: bridled, repressed
1. not released; repressed pent-up emotions; pent up excitement/frustration/fear
2. kept unwillingly 

• Pent-up emotions can be harmful to mental health.- refoulé
• pent up emotions are strong feelings, for example anger, that you do not express so that they gradually become more difficult to control
• I've been pent up in this office for over a year- confiné

Cot death

Cot death. - mort subite du nourisson
Crib death, SIDS: sudden infant death syndrome

Crib death is a tragic situation, of which little is known. For all who have been confronted to the angst of the monitoring...this Horizon documentary gives an insight in how the research in this field was based on an error at its early stage.

Research into cot death syndrome has been held up for more than 20 years by a scientific error that may have cost hundreds of lives. Much of the research into sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has stemmed from a research paper based on one family who had five children who died from unexplained circumstances. The deaths turned out to have been caused by the children's mother, who suffered from Munchausen's Syndrome By Proxy. The condition means people enjoy the attention from nurses and doctors when their children get ill. This leads them to fake or induce the symptoms to keep the doctors' attention.

Come to grips with

come to grips with someone or something
to begin to deal with someone or something difficult or challenging in a sensible way. 

• We must all come to grips with this tragedy. - faire face à
• I cannot come to grips with Ed and his problems.
• For a long time, our biggest challenge was coming to grips with the logistics.

Variation around "scruffy"

Scruffy
untidy, dirty


[person, appearance]   débraillé (e)      
[clothes, jeans,]   dépenaillé (e)      
[hair]   hirsute   
[flat, street]   miteux (-euse)  

• This part of the city is scruffy

Shabby
old and in bad condition, dressed in clothes that are old or in bad condition, of low quality

• shabby clothes/furniture/building. - rapé usé
• The children were all so shabby and hungry.
• feel shabby: Linda felt shabby standing next to Andrea in her fashionable clothes
• The whole affair was rather shabby.
• He blasted the lawyers for submitting such shabby paperwork.
• a shop selling shabby goods

Ragged
torn and dirty, wearing old dirty clothes and looking very poor

• a pair of ragged shorts. - en lambeaux, en loques
• ragged posters hung on the walls.
• ragged children playing in the street

with edges that are not straight or smooth

• the ragged appearance of a bite wound

not skilful or organized

• It was a pretty ragged performance from the champions.

not smooth or regular

• He took a few ragged breaths and began to run again.- irrégulier

Figurative

• Ragged edge. - mauvaise passe
• on the ragged edge. - dans la limite, au bord de l'abîme