Intermediate Phrases

Phrase	Meaning	Sample Sentence
Come to think of it	Realizing something after some thought	Come to think of it, I did see her at the party.
Pull it off	To succeed at something difficult	I can’t believe she pulled it off!
Hit the nail on the head	To be exactly right	You really hit the nail on the head with that idea.
In the long run	Over a long period of time	In the long run, healthy habits pay off.
On the same page	To agree or understand each other	I think we're finally on the same page.
Go with the flow	To relax and accept what happens	Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
Out of the blue	Unexpectedly	He called me out of the blue.
Up in the air	Uncertain or undecided	The trip is up in the air until we confirm the tickets.
Think twice	To reconsider	You should think twice before quitting.
Make a big deal out of	To exaggerate something	Don’t make a big deal out of it.
Keep in mind	To remember	Just keep in mind the deadline.
Fill someone in	To update someone	I’ll fill you in later.
Take it easy	To relax	Just take it easy this weekend.
Cut it out	Stop doing something annoying	Hey, cut it out!
Bite the bullet	To do something unpleasant	I had to bite the bullet and go to the dentist.
Get the hang of	To learn how to do something	Just practice, and you’ll get the hang of it.
Burn the midnight oil	To work late	He’s burning the midnight oil again.
Cross the line	To go too far	You crossed the line with that comment.
Drop the ball	To make a mistake	I really dropped the ball on this project.
Speak your mind	To say what you really think	He always speaks his mind.
Get back on track	To return to the right path	After the delay, we got back on track.
Go the extra mile	To do more than expected	He went the extra mile for his team.
Keep your cool	To stay calm	He kept his cool, even under pressure.
Blow off steam	To release stress	She needed to blow off steam after the meeting.
Hit the road	To leave or start a journey	We should hit the road before traffic gets bad.
Play it by ear	To decide as things happen	We didn’t plan—just played it by ear.
Sleep on it	To think overnight before deciding	Sleep on it before you say yes.
Let someone down	To disappoint	He really let her down.
Take it personally	To feel hurt by something	I didn’t mean to take it personally.
Keep your word	To do what you promised	He kept his word and helped me move.
In a nutshell	In short	In a nutshell, we need more time.
Make ends meet	To earn enough money	She’s working two jobs to make ends meet.
Keep an eye on	To watch carefully	I’ll keep an eye on the kids.
Have second thoughts	To reconsider	He had second thoughts after applying.
Break the ice	To start a conversation	He broke the ice by asking a fun question.
Stick to it	To keep doing something	I’ll stick to it no matter what.
Run late	To be behind schedule	The meeting is running late again.
Back to square one	To start over	We lost the file and went back to square one.
Take it for granted	To not appreciate	He took her help for granted.
Out of line	Inappropriate or disrespectful	You were totally out of line yesterday.
Put up with	To tolerate	She puts up with a lot.
Call it a day	To stop working for now	We’ll call it a day after this task.
Touch base	To briefly talk or connect	I’ll touch base with her next week.
Get cold feet	To become nervous	She got cold feet and didn’t show up.
Step up	To take responsibility	It’s your turn to step up.
Face the music	To accept consequences	She faced the music for her actions.
Turn a blind eye	To ignore something	He turned a blind eye to the problem.
Throw in the towel	To give up	I won’t throw in the towel yet.
Cost an arm and a leg	Very expensive	The vacation cost an arm and a leg.
Under the weather	Not feeling well	He’s under the weather with a cold.