In the spirit of the Thanksgiving Holiday we have decided to teach you some useful American idioms, using TURKEY of course. For those of you who are not in the know, turkey (the bird, not the country) is what Americans traditionally eat on Thanksgiving Day.
The four idioms below all contain a reference to this tasty bird.
talk turkey: Now that we bought this new house we need to talk turkey. It is going to be a lot more expensive and we may need to cut back on other things. (to discuss a serious matter, to talk business)
go cold turkey: Quitting smoking is difficult. I suggest you just go for it and do it cold turkey. Make that your last cigarette! (to give up or stop doing something abruptly)
to be a turkey: Who is the turkey that left the coca-cola in the fridge? It exploded and left a mess all over the place! (to be an idiot or fool)
turkey shoot: The Miami Heat game was a real turkey shoot yesterday. The Heat outscored the other team by 50 points! (when one side of a war, fight, or competition is much stronger than the other) That’s all for today!
Let us know if you have any questions about English.