have/keep (all) your wits about you

to be ready to think quickly in a situation and react to things that you are not expecting. - avoir toute sa tête

• Cycling is potentially very dangerous in the city - you have to keep your wits about you.

Usually, wits.

• intelligent observation, keen perception
  using one's wits to get ahead.
  Synonyms: cleverness, cunning, wisdom, insight, perspicacity, sacaciousness, acumen.
  
• mental faculties
  to lose one's wits; frightened out of one's wits.

• scaring the wits out of: tout à fait effrayant
• to pit one's wits against sb: rivaliser d'esprit avec qn
• to have one's wits about one: avoir toute sa tête
• to pit one's wits against sb: se mesurer à qn
• to keep one's wits about one: garder la tête sur les épaules
• to frighten the wits out of sb: faire une peur bleue à qn
• to use one's wits to do sth: se servir de sa tête pour faire qch
• to gather one's wits: rassembler ses esprits
• be scared out of my wits: être mort de peur
• to engage in a battle of wits: jouer au plus fin
• to be at one's wits' end: ne plus savoir que faire
• wit: esprit,intelligence
• dim wit: imbécile
• dry wit: humour pince-sans-rire ; humour caustique
• Syn. : deadpan.
• half-wit: idiot
• quick wit: vivacité d'esprit
• ready wit: caractère spirituel
• flash of wit: boutade

Moral compass

ethical sense or guide. - sens moral

a natural feeling that makes people know what is right and wrong and how they should behave

• Some people believe that the increase in crime shows that society is losing its moral compass.

Keep a/the lid on something

1. To keep something secret. passer sous silence

• It's supposed to be a surprise, so try to keep a lid on it, will you?

2. to control the level of something in order to stop it increasing, to maintain control over something.- garder sous controle 

• His forces kept a lid on unrest for nearly eight years.
• Economic difficulties continued and the government intervened to keep a lid on inflation.

Pry into something

to snoop into something; to get into someone else's business. - se mêler de, s'immiscer dans, être indiscret

• Why are you prying into my affairs all the time? 
• I wish you wouldn't pry into my personal life.

Stave off something

stave off something also stave something off = prevent, ward off.- contrer, éviter

• so you get good about using the technology to figure out how to stave off that boredom.
• to keep something away or keep something from happening 
• The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to boost the economy and stave off a recession.
• Death is natural and inevitable - we can't stave it off forever.
• He could stave his thirst off no longer.
• They say that if you take extra vitamins, you may be able to stave off the flu.

Stuck in a rut

bored by routine. - enlisé dans une routine

• But people often feel they want to change their life, to change their job. They might feel stuck in a rut.