Idioms: angel(s) - a fallen angel

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Idiom(s) of the day: fallen angel

Variation(s):

My category (Russian-to-English translation): Положительная или отрицательная оценка (Positive or negative evaluation)

Explanation(s):

Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, 2004 (CCDI):

If you refer to someone as a fallen angel, you mean that although they were once virtuous or successful, they are now wicked or unsuccessful.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

1) An institution whose creditworthiness has declined considerably. 2) A security in the US market that has dropped below its original value; it may be sold for its increased yield

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

(in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim tradition) an angel who rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

Translation(s):

CCDI:

Падший ангел

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

1) падший ангел, злой дух, дьявол 2) падший ангел (о женщине)

высокодоходная облигация, потерявшая уровень рейтинга, приемлемый для инвесторов

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

Multitran (www.multitran.ru):

Люцифер; сатана

Multilex (www.multilex.ru):

Examples:

CCDI:

Without an away League win all season, Leeds United quickly became the fallen angel of the Premier League.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

To him she appeared a very angel dropped from the sky, and all the more easy to get on with for being a fallen one. (S. Butler, ‘The Way of All Flesh’, ch. LXXI) — Ему она казалась ангелом, сошедшим с небес; и с ней тем легче было поладить, что ангел этот был падший.

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) v4.0:

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

British National Corpus (BNC), Mark Davies (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/): fallen [angel], total 13

Frank Keating would write about sport with the wit and wonder of a fallen angel.

For a man to say that Galadriel was an angel, for instance, might then seem natural enough. Would she be a fallen angel? In a way the answer is "No", for certainly the elves play no part in Tolkien's War in Heaven, when Melkor is shut out. On the other hand Galadriel has been expelled from a kind of Heaven, the Deathless land of Valinor, and has been forbidden to return.

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Mark Davies (http:// www.americancorpus.org/): fallen [angel], total 104

It is not enough to be on the side of the angels or to have good intentions. Hell is ruled by fallen angels and the path there is paved with good intentions.

But he was more drawn to "orphans" and "fallen angels" -- companies either too small for analysts to write a report about or too tarnished to merit a good one.

Oh, sure. I love fallen angels. American Telephone is the biggest and best of them -- Ma Bell at $23, down from a high of $60 not more than a year ago.

At more than six feet of lean, toned masculinity blessed with the face of a fallen angel, he could hardly help it.

Word was the Callus Grill was open to misfits, outcasts, runaways, bums, and all other manner of fallen angel. A sure place to get a good hot meal.

She looks like one sexy femme fatale, which is exactly what she plays in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. As fallen Angel Madison Lee, the 40-year-old Moore graces the screen for her first mainstream role in six years-since 1997's ill-received G.I. Jane.

Marlene Dietrich sang with the grace of a fallen angel.

My companion project: An Idiom a Day (www.twitter.com/AVDemid): Angel(s): Can a fallen angel still be on the side of the angels?

Idioms: sacrifice(d) at/on/upon the altar of something

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Idiom(s) of the day: sacrificed on the altar of something

Variation(s): sacrifice someone or something on/at/upon the altar of; a sacrifice on the altar of something

My category (Russian-to-English translation): Успех и неудача (Success and failure). Справедливость (Fairness)

Explanation(s):

Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, 2004 (CCDI):

You say that someone or something is being sacrificed on the altar of a particular ideology or activity when they suffer unfairly and are harmed because of it.

You can also say that someone or something is a sacrifice on the altar of a particular thing.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

cause someone or something to suffer in the interests of someone or something else

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

[suffer] because of sth that you think is worth suffering for

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

Translation(s):

Поступиться чем-либо ради чего-либо другого

CCDI:

Принесенный, возложенный на алтарь чего-либо.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

Multitran (www.multitran.ru):

Multilex (www.multilex.ru):

приносить, -ести (кого/что) в жертву

Examples:

CCDI:

The European Community remained adamant that the interests of its twelve million farmers couldn’t be sacrificed on the altar of free trade.

Let us hope and strive to ensure that Palo Alto’s quality education will not be sacrificed on the altar of ill-conceived social experimentation.

Two leading public servants have been sacrificed on the altar of ministerial incompetence.

The men were, in a word, expendable sacrifices on the altar of the Cold War.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

no businessman is going to sacrifice his company on the altar of such altruism

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

He was willing to sacrifice his happiness on the altar of fame.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) v4.0:

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

British National Corpus (BNC), Mark Davies (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/): [sacrifice] * the altar, total 8

Pearson is seen as the first British director to be sacrificed on the altar of his art.

A leading Czech politician has said, "Why should Czechoslovakia be sacrificed on the altar of the Bavarian farmer?"

As I think Mr Gillett already suspects, the truth is that a great part of the Willesden Green library stock was sacrificed on the altar of Community Librarianship.

Or was it true that the Church was so short of people of stature (under the age of 73) that only one man among them had enough stature for the see [office of a bishop] of London and for that reason his scholarship must be sacrificed on the altar of a higher good?

The other school believes that the traditional skills of the paste-up artist should be retained rather than sacrificed on the altar of automation.

A traditional interior does not have to be incompatible with accommodating whole families, nor with providing meals; yet an increasing number of old pub interiors are being sacrificed on the altar of the identikit eating house --; whether the brewer's concept be a downmarket steakhouse or part of a family restaurant chain masquerading as an independent local concern.

Safety sacrificed at the altar of profit

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Mark Davies (http:// www.americancorpus.org/): [sacrifice] * the altar, total 48; [sacrifice] * at|on|upon the altar, total 16

Egypt, Jordan, and the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council fear that their interests will be sacrificed on the altar of a U.S.-Iranian détente.

I've seen his handiwork, including laying off Lynell George at The Los Angeles Times and Jeffrey Meitrodt at The Chicago Tribune, just two of the many veterans I happen to know he has sacrificed on the altar of debt service.

And is Santa Claus being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness?

It seems service will be sacrificed on the altar of price.

Not only has heterosexual love been sacrificed on the altar of male homosocial desire, but the notions underlying this division have often been taken to the point of treating friendship between women and between men and women as oxymorons.

Putin may have rolled back democratic gains, the story goes, but these were necessary sacrifices on the altar of stability and growth.

Expressions of concern, instructions, jokes, but, really sacrifices on the altar of thankfulness that though death had come so close, they were safe.

The bargain is a Faustian one that demands the offering of blood sacrifices on the altar of publicity.

Detective Zahrey was a human sacrifice on the altar of public opinion.

For example, in certain circles Illimar Koonen is considered to be an innocent sacrifice on the altar of high art, while at the same time others try to see him as the embodiment of everything that was opposed to the art of the 1960s.

He tells me he wants a new trial for "Bobby Harris," who is "just the first sacrificial lamb that we want to sacrifice on the altar of inhumanity."

I wonder how many of those remaining reflect their boss's technological ineptitude (as was the case with me) and how many represent a sacrifice at the altar of his ego.

I think in her crazy Slavic way she thinks she's making a great sacrifice at the altar of art.

Too often, pragmatism has been sacrificed at the altar of ideology, and common interests have been obscured by convoluted historical grievances.

The image of female sexuality sacrificed at the altar of honor fashions an aesthetic which evokes signs of a public, punitive corporeality, stressing the visibility of the tortured body.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Tonton George had also sacrificed himself on the altar of celibacy.

this African dictator was an " evil genius " who " sacrificed Ghana on the altar of Pan-Africanism ".

You humiliated the woman! Sacrifice yourself on the altar of dignity and even the score.

They realized they didn't have to sacrifice themselves at the altar of this company

In other words, the liberal is the inveterate enemy of the poor, happy to sacrifice them on the altar of costless generosity.

there are also some influential circles there which are ready to sacrifice Iraq on the altar of the better relations with the West -- particularly with the U.S.

he will gladly sacrifice her on the altar of his dreams.

Should one sacrifice friends on the altar of general principles?

But the past is better left alone, unless you really want to sacrifice Blake on the altar of revenge.

My companion project: An Idiom a Day (www.twitter.com/AVDemid): When being sacrificed on the altar of a higher good, try to relax and enjoy it.

On the Danger Physicists Run Learning Foreign Languages

ON THE DANGER PHYSICISTS RUN LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES

A specialist is said to need a foreign language

If all his life he doesn’t want among

Backbenchers languish

With just his mother tongue.

I should have questioned it, but I was young

And saw to it that it was done.

And five I learned—not one!

No words to describe how happy I was!

It was heaven—and simply because,

As I’d been told, I was—

Without doubt—the real boss.

But soon I was completely at a loss.

But first things first.

And first—no need to stress—

Comes the scientific press.

There were some useless journals in the library,

But neither crying or bribery

Could get you even Radiation Effects.

Small wonder it adversely affects

The industry that such research effects.

I thought: “If I’ve no right

To read what I might,

I might as well write what I might

And publish wherever I might.”

But then another industry revealed its might—

The worst to fight—

And said: “Of course. Wherever you might.

Only not abroad.”

The reason? Ask the overlords

If you aren’t overawed.

There’s been some talk of going there to study.

I could use new ideas, for my head was muddy.

Again: “Suppose—unmarried—you went abroad.

And then a broad… We simply can’t afford.”

For science as such I’d sacrifice much,

But that was a touch too much.

Let science bust—

I won’t marry till I must!

So science can’t be read and can’t be written.

Yet I could speak—I wasn’t beaten.

But when I found out

That if a foreign guest should be about

I couldn’t sound him out

Because hush-hush department

Would veto such a partner.

Science and languages fell out.

For some time all I did was pout.

But being tricked and kicked,

I wasn’t licked.

I thought I still could have some fun

On the side—on every other but this one.

Alas! It wasn’t in the cards.

Nowhere anything in sight in our yard

(But some say neighbours have it OK).

No motion scenes

In a cinema to be seen.

Not even TV to watch

With a bottle of Scotch.

No books or papers to be read—

I might as well be dead.

Yet lo! My boat is still afloat.

I owe it to poetry alone

That my throat isn’t cut.

But

The Muse has been ready to take credit

For all my musings to carefully edit.

Curse as I may—

Versed in physics, not in verses—

Verses are all I make.

Alexander V Demidov

4 January 1989

Idioms: all-singing, all-dancing

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Idiom(s) of the day: all-singing, all-dancing

Variation(s): all-singing and all-dancing; all-singing and dancing;

My category (Russian-to-English translation): Преимущество (Advantage)

Explanation(s):

Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, 2004 (CCDI):

If you describe something new as all-singing, all-dancing, you mean that it is very modern and advanced, with a lot of additional facilities. [mainly BRITISH]

The phrase originally appeared on a poster advertising the first ever Hollywood musical film Broadway Melody (1929), described as ‘all talking, all singing, all dancing’.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

an all-singing, all-dancing machine or system can do many things because it is so technically advanced – used humorously

having a large number and variety of impressive features

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

an all-singing, all-dancing system or piece of equipment is very advanced and able to do everything you want it to

Full-featured, with many attributes

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

Translation(s):

CCDI:

Крутой; с прибамбасами/примочками

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

Multitran (www.multitran.ru):

со всеми наворотами

Multilex (www.multilex.ru):

Examples:

CCDI:

His rival, the Savoy, has beaten him to the development of an all-singing, all-dancing computer system which is the latest in hotel marketing.

As long as you don’t expect an all-singing, all-dancing Japanese marvel, the camera represents an excellent buy—and one that I can recommend.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) v4.0:

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

British National Corpus (BNC), Mark Davies (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/): all-singing, total 19

A slice of Broadway has come to the region in the shape of an all-singing, all-dancing spectacular.

Anyone acquainted with the ethereal, blissed-out dance pop of Sunscreem's two chart hits, "Love U More" and "Perfect Motion", might be surprised to learn that live they are an adrenalin-soaked, all-singing, all-dancing, all flame-throwing event with the omnipresent thumping beat determinedly UP.

this could be a wedding video, tape/slide programme or an all-singing, all-dancing drama/documentary for a broadcaster.

The Alpha 2.0 processor is one of the newest generation of all-singing, all-dancing sound tools which look set to keep the guitarist's interest in digital effects very much alive …

Especially at the grand-daddy of all "funny black people" programmes, The Black And White Minstrel Show, which, at its all-singing, all-dancing, blackface-'n-white-gloved, eye-rolling, lip-smacking, "Ol’ Man River"--; singing peak, drew an audience of 20 million.

He was still nursing his hand wound and was in pain for most of the evening, but his all-singing, all-dancing performance brought him a standing ovation and fifteen curtain-calls at the end of three magical hours.

In theory, and Apple's market research tended to back this up, the availability of this new, low-cost hardware together with the new all-singing, all-dancing software would create a massive explosion in the use of presentation graphics by the business community.

As a baby brother to the all-singing and dancing Publisher's Paintbrush, it maintained much of the functionality of the more expensive product, but at a vastly reduced cost.

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Mark Davies (http:// www.americancorpus.org/): all-singing , total 5

They'd prefer that you think of the RX 330 as the new, improved, bigger, better, all-singing, all-dancing version of the vehicle that started what's become a rush into pricey, car-based SUVs generally called premium crossover vehicles.

Granted, Windows isn't yet an all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing kind of operating system, but there's a lot you can do with Windows and a half-decent sound card.

My companion project: An Idiom a Day (www.twitter.com/AVDemid): Caught in the rush to get the latest all-singing, all-dancing gadgets, we sometimes forget that singing and dancing is the prerogative of humans—no matter how impressive a performance machines put on.

Cut to 140 keystrokes for Twitter: In our rush to get the latest all-singing,all-dancing gadgets,we forget that singing&dancing should be provided by us rather than machines.

Strangers in the Night

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT

In the dead of cosmic night,

Once an aeon, comets pass each other by.

For an instant, all’s ablaze with light.

That’s the law that space is governed by.

Man and Woman just as rarely

Truly meet—to drift apart.

Could this law be made more fairly?

Then their roads need never part.

Alexander V Demidov

27 November 1988

Idioms: right up/down your alley/street

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Idiom(s) of the day: Right up/down your alley

Variation(s): (Right) up/down your street [BRITISH]

My category (Russian-to-English translation): Понимание и знание (Understanding and knowledge)

Explanation(s):

Collins Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms, 2004 (CCDI):

If you say that something is right up your alley, you mean that this is the kind of thing you like or know about. Right up your street means the same. You can also say that something is right down your alley street. Judging by the entries in the Corpora (see below), alley seems to be mostly American usage.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

very suitable for someone

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

well suited to one's tastes, interests, or abilities

Compatible with one's interests or qualifications

to be what someone likes or is good at doing

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

in keeping with or satisfying one's abilities, interests, or tastes

Translation(s):

CCDI:

По чьей-либо части; в чьих-либо возможностях; это уже ваша епархия; вам и карты в руки.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

как раз (подходящий) для кого-то

Multitran (www.multitran.ru):

По вашей линии

то, что подходит; то, что нравится; то, что надо

Examples:

CCDI:

This should be right up your alley but, despite the film’s undoubted virtues, it has an air of ‘Look at me, aren’t I good’ that grated.

I thought this little problem would be right up your alley.

I’ll need whatever information you can turn up within the week. I have other people looking into this from other angles. But this case seems right down you alley.

Lingvo (www.lingvo.com):

The job sounds right up your alley.

Babylon (www.babylon.com):

this job would be right up your street

A teaching job would be right up her alley

an assignment that is right up your alley

Teaching computers to adults that sounds right up my alley!

Multilex (www.multilex.ru):

that's right up my alley (coll.) это как раз по моей части.

this is just up your street это как раз по вашей части.

Multitran (www.multitran.ru):

"Well since you're so flexible, Indre, yoga should be right up your alley!" — Раз ты такой гибкий, йога — это как раз по твоей части!

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) v4.0:

Alley: c.II.3.c to be up a person's alley: to be up a person's street (see street n.). slang.

1931 M. E. Gilman Sob Sister v. 65 It's about time a good murder broke, and this one is right up your alley. 1936 D. Carnegie How to win Friends (1938) iv. viii. 247 Bridge will be in a cinch for you. It is right up your alley. 1941 Auden New Year Let. ii. p. 37 All vague idealistic art That coddles the uneasy heart, Is up his alley. 1954 R. P. Bissell High Water (1955) iii. 32 Right up your alley with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse and all them other uplifting characters you are always studying up on. 1965 New Statesman 9 Apr. 583/2 Its slogans and chirpy recommendations are right up her spiritual alley.

street, n.

Street: j.3.j to be up (down, †in) one's street: to be suited to someone's taste or ability.

1903 Farmer & Henley Slang VII. 10/1 Street‥, a capacity, a method; a line: e.g. ‘That's not in my street’ = ‘I am not concerned’ or ‘That's not my way of doing,’ etc. 1929 Publishers' Weekly 21 Dec. 2813/2 A great many of the books published today are, as the saying is, right up her street. 1937 Forward 13 Nov. 1/2 We Labour people can the more easily say these things because some of his activities were ‘up our street’. 1945 E. Waugh Brideshead Revisited ii. iv. 259 She is a jolly attractive girl, the sort of girl any chap would be glad to have—artistic, too, just down your street. 1955 Knight & George Advice to Student of French 67 The historical line of enquiry is outside your scope, but the analysis of the book or books is right down your street. 1960 L. Cooper Accomplices i. vi. 55 John Pollard got me the job and‥I loved it.‥ It was right up my street. 1977 It May 28/1 If you like Miles Davis's ‘In a Silent Way’ then Don Cherry has a new release which is just up your street.

Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary v4.7:

If you like science fiction, this book will be right up your alley.

British National Corpus (BNC), Mark Davies (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/): up [dp*] alley, total 1; up [dp*] street, total 20

It's a kind of deceptive simplicity, I guess, and musically she's right up our alley.

This sort of thing should be right up your street.

So, if that sounds up your street , get your Peak Performance subscription in soon!

Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), Mark Davies (http:// www.americancorpus.org/): up [ap*] alley, total 71; up [ap*] street, total 14

This should be right up your alley. You're in a dirty business and he's taking the big dirt nap [A dirt nap is when you die, you take the big dirt bath. to be buried underground].

It's wonderful stuff. He's right up my street.

My companion project: An Idiom a Day (www.twitter.com/AVDemid): If something is right up/down your alley/street, it can never be a blind alley for you.

Poetry: Please, Can I Sue for Damages?

PLEASE, CAN I SUE FOR DAMAGES?

Having reached the age of wisdom,

I thought nothing would surprise me.

Not a coming of Messiah.

Not a new rise in the prices.

Nor—God help me!—just a teacher.

Still, we’re young as long as we can marvel.

That I did. As she came in.

Lesson one. Phonetics. That was

What we were expecting.

Not a model in the spotlights.

Not Her Majesty the Queen.

Nor a succubus incarnate.

Not exactly. That I grant you.

Just a lady phonetician.

NOT a lady à la Vogue.

Were the others stricken down?

Ask them. I, for one, was not prepared:

Such a beauty—in a classroom!

She’s the one to teach us.

What a present!

Dawn was breaking in my head.

Dusty classrooms? Eden’s gardens!

Whether Eve was even prettier…

It’s for pundits to resolve.

(I’ve a hunch Eve wasn’t all that charming…

Otherwise it’s Adam Serpent would have handled.)

Were their looks found equal,

Eve would lose the contest all the same:

Omnia vincit amor,

Amor (Russian sets the gender right)

Was the name of the instructress.

(Wasn’t it perhaps the pull of name alone

That made Paris single Venus out?)

Still, it’s trite enough in Russian.

Not an asset in itself.

What I’m driving at is

Her enunciation and the timbre of her voice.

(All the sex appeal of Mona Lisa

Down the drain would go unless

True to image did she speak.)

Well, at last I heard a lady

Speaking English, Queen’s.

Not the rag I’d heard around,

Swelled the chorus, forced to speak, myself.

Do I have to spell my feelings out?

Ah, in short, it clinched the case.

And for me it made the headlines,

Sky-high, for I was surprised,

Flabbergasted, if you will.

Let us hope a few of like surprises

Life still has in store for us.

Otherwise, till Judgment Day

It’s a bit too long a stretch.

That was all I thought then.

Now I wonder, for, you see,

That surprise was not the last.

Nor the least, alas.

Day by day she taught us English.

Day by day… Routine. And yet

Such a splendid teacher was she

All the students made some progress

(Dubious? Well, but surely none regressed.),

But on me she cast a spell.

Why the others proved immune to voodoo’s

Hard to say, and anyway

It’s too early for conclusions.

Wait and see. But as for me…

I’m a lost man. For you see..

“Comrades, you must be more rhythmical,

Still more rhythmical,” she urged.

Has she rammed her message home?

Large as life and twice as devastating!

Wish she hadn’t cast her spell, recast my soul, so that

Struggle as I may and beg for mercy—all’s in vain!

Overnight I find myself obsessed by rhythm.

All I do is versifying,

Lost my sleep, look like a zombie.

Rhythm can be such a burden!

Still, it’s not so bad. I will survive.

Only one thought still is nagging at me…

Should she, cards consulted, teach me yet to rhyme

(Guardian angel, your job! Up and at it!),

Then I’ll be a goner, worth at best a dime.

Alexander V Demidov

9 November 1988