Weekly English Words with Alisha - Clothes Idioms

Hi everybody. Welcome back to Weekly Words. My name is Alisha, and today we’re going

to talk about clothes idioms. Okay, let’s get started.

‘Beat the pants off someone’. To beat someone severely, or to win against

someone easily in a race or a game. If you do much better than somebody else in some

form of competition, you can use the phrase ‘beat the pants off’. In a sentence, “My

brother beat the pants off the competition at the swimming meet last weekend”. “My

brother beat the pants of the competition at the basketball game last week.” My brother

is a really skilled sportsman, it seems. James, what’s up?

Next phrase is ‘burst at the seems’. To ‘burst at the seams’. If you imagine

a shirt, or just something, when there’s too much inside it, the seams of it kind of

go “aahhh”. They’re expanding too much, and when there’s way too much of something

inside a piece of cloth, maybe the seam rips. So this phrase means something that is too

full, or too crowded. In a sentence, “My subway car was bursting at the seams, I could

barely breathe”.

The next on is ‘by the seat of one’s pants’. I don't know understand the history of this

phrase, but it means you’re able to do something because you’re just really lucky. For example,

“I passed the test by the seat of my pants”. Like, just out of pure luck.

Next is ‘to have something up one’s sleeve’. Imagine a magician or something, when they

do tricks they pull flowers out of their jacket pocket, or something like that, or out of

their sleeve. It means you have some kind of plan ready, you’re prepared with something

that might be a little mischievous. So, let’s see. In a sentence, “I knew my friend had

something up his sleeve for my birthday because he was being really mysterious”? Okay.

Next! ‘Wear more than one hat’. This is a good phrase. This phrase means you

have more than one responsibility. You have more than one job, or you have a few different

roles in your life. The image is that you change hats for each of your roles. “I wear

more than one hat in my current position. I’m in charge of a few different departments

at my company”.

Alright, that’s the end of things. That’s the end of clothes idioms. Thank you very

much for joining us. Give these a try and we will see you again next week for more fun

information. Bye.