-
let in
- Allow entry.
- I told the doorman that this was a private party but he still let half the town in.
-
let off
- Perdonar.The judge let her off because of her age.
- He said that at ninety-seven prison would serve no purpose.
-
let out
- Allow to leave; make clothes bigger.
- I had to sit through the whole concert because the doorman wouldn't let me out.I've put on a stone in the past six months. None of my clothes fit me, and I've had to let my suit out twice so I can wear it to the wedding.
-
light up
- Begin smoking; illuminate something.
- He lit a cigarette up next to the dynamite. No wonder he blew himself to pieces.They light the palace up when it gets dark. It looks quite spectacular at night with all the floodlights on.
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live down
- superar la verguenza
- I can't believe I spilled red wine down the cardinal's surplice. I'll never live it down, and he won't let me, you can be sure of that.
- lograr que algo se olvide- you'll never live it down (nunca podras superarlo)
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mess around
- hacer el tonto, fastidiar
- I was messing around with the computer and I think I deleted some important files. Now I can't get it to work
-
mess up
- Mishandle a situation.
- Everything was arranged. All you had to do was shake a few hands, but you messed it all up completely by trying to be cleverer than you are.
-
mull over
- meditar,reflexionar
- He said he would have to mull the problem over and tell us his decision in the morning.
-
pass around
- repartir,distribuir
- Could you pass this leaflet around at your next meeting? I'm sure your delegates will be interested
-
pass up
- Dejar pasar, dejar escapar.
- I don't believe that you passed the chance up to go out with her. Most men would give their right arm just to speak to her.
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pass on
- pasar un mensaje,recado. transmitir(legar)
- Could you pass the message on to him when you speak to him? Tell him it's very important.
-
pay back
- Repay money; get revenge.
- He said he would pay the money back by last Friday. Well, he hasn't and now it's the time to pay him back for ignoring our little agreement. We need to send out the message that nobody cheats on us.
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pay off
- Settle a debt.
- We've just paid our mortgage off after twenty years. Now the house is ours.
-
pick up
- Gather together; (vehicle) take passengers.
- Look at the mess in here! Pick all the pieces up and put them back in the box.I'll pick you both up at half-past from outside the bus station. I'll be driving a red Ford Focus.
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play down
- quitar importancia a
- We should play the importance of this accident down. If the press realise the true significance we'll be in real trouble.
-
point out
- Make people aware of something.
- The ice shelf is melting faster than we anticipated. I think I pointed this fact out to you at our last meeting
-
pull down
- derribar (un edificio). Bajar (un pantalon,persiana)
- We're going to pull these old buildings down to make way for the new houses.
-
pull together
- calmarse. aunar esfuerzos
- You had better pull yourself together before the interview, or they'll think you're crazy and you'll never get the job.
-
put back
- Return something to its place.
- Put the books back on the shelf and leave the library, we're closing
-
put in
- Instalar.
- I'm having a new washing machine put in next week.
-
put off
- Postpone
- We need to put the invasion off until the weather improves. I think we should be able to begin in two days.
-
put on
- engordar, dar (un concierto, una obra de teatro), tomar el pelo
- He's put about twenty kilos on since the last time I saw him. You are putting me on!
-
put up
- Alojar, hospedar ; aumentar (un precio)
- Are you sure you can put me up for the week? I'll have my own place again by Friday.
- Great! They're going to put the council tax up again. Another fifty quid a year to find!
-
quiet down
- Become silent
- You'll have to quiet that baby down or they'll hear us. It's making far too much noise. Can't you feed it or something?
-
rake up
- airear (una noticia)
- Every year the press seems to rake that nonsense up about the accident. Why can't they just forget about it?
-
ring back
- Return a call by telephone
- Florence rang. She seemed upset. Why don't you ring her back and find out what the matter is?
-
ring up
- Telephone someone
- I thought I told you not to ring me up at home? What if my wife answered it?
-
rinse off
- Cleanse with water
- Quickly! Rinse that wine off your shirt before it stains.
-
rinse out
- Cleanse with liquid
- That's the filling done, Mr Jackson. Now, rinse your mouth out with this antiseptic
-
rule out
- Exclude
- I can't rule the chance out that the police may want to speak to you again. If they do want to, give me a call and I'll go to the police station with you.
-
run down
- atropellar, agotar (una pila, fisicamente)
- He ran an old lady down and didn't even stop to see how badly she was hurt. She's in hospital with a broken hip.
- I hate hare coursing. The way the dogs run the hare down and then kill it when it's exhausted.
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run off
- hacer copias (impresora,fotocopiadora) sacar (fotos)
- I asked the printer to run a thousand copies off. That's enough for every member of staff to have their own copy of the magazine.
-
save up
- ahorrar, acumular (cosas)
- If you want a new cycle you'll have to save your pocket money up instead of wasting it on sweets and comics.
- I saved all the comics up and sold them to buy a new bike.
-
see through
- terminar, llevar a buen termino
- I started the journey and was determined to see it through to the end, no matter how difficult it was.
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see off
- ir a despedir, despedirse. ahuyentar
- That bloody cat from next door is always digging up the garden. I'm going to buy a dog to see it off.
- They left on the eight o'clock flight. We went to the station to see them off.
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chase away
ahuyentar, echar fuera. He used a broom to chase the dog away.
-
send back
- Return something
- I don't like the colour of the curtains. I'm going to send them back to the shop to get a refund.
-
send over
- Despatch something somewhere
- I'd be interested in reading the report. Why don't you send it over with the courier?
-
set back
- retrasar, entorpecer, atrasar (un reloj)
- That storm set us back by at least a day. It'll be a miracle if we can complete the crossing to New York in time for the celebrations.
- apartar (uso pasivo) The school is set back from the road (el colegio esta apartado de la calle)
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set down
- establecer (una norma), poner por escrito
- I'll set down the rules of the house on this paper so there can be no argument later about what you can or can not do.
-
set up
- instalar,configurar, montar (una tienda,un negocio,empresa), erigir,levantar (un monumento)
- I set the computer network up myself. I couldn't afford a technician because I had just set the business up and money was tight.
-
show off
- Display with pride; enhance the qualities of
- She loves to show her piano skill off to anyone who shows an interest.
- That new dress really shows your hair off to best advantage, Julia. You look gorgeous!
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shut off
- Cortar (el suministro de algo), aislar, apagar (una maquina)
- The police have shut Church Street off after an accident.
- Before you take the cover off you must shut the electricity off. Otherwise you'll be electrocuted.
-
slag off
- poner verde, poner por los suelos (algo)
- You can slag me off as much as you want, but I know you're only jealous because I'm the one marrying him, not you!
-
slow up
- ralentizar
- That burst water pipe will slow the building work up considerably. We'll have to pump the water out before the workers can get back to work.
-
spell out
- explicar con detalle
- She's the slowest student I ever had. If I don't spell everything out for her she just doesn't understand.
-
stand up
- dejar plantado,
- She was so upset when he stood her up at the cinema last night. She had to see the film on her own.
- stand up for sb - defender a algo
- stand up to sth - resistir a algo
-
stare down
- Look intensely at someone with ill feeling
- She tried to stare me down but I just ignored her. So what if she used to be his girlfriend, I'm his wife now.
-
start off
- Begin something
- I'll start off the meeting by telling the members how much money has been spent in the past year on stationary alone.
-
sweep out
- Clean using a brush
- We need to sweep all that dirt out of the stables before we put the fresh straw in.
-
take back
- Induce nostalgia; retract a statement, admit an error
- That smell takes me back to when I was a little boy. It reminds me of my grandmother's house.
- You'd better take that statement back or you'll be hearing from my lawyers. It's a damn lie!
-
take down
- Write notes; remove something; stop an opponent
- The policeman took everything down that I said in his notebook.
- You shouldn't take your Christmas decorations down until the twelfth night. It's bad luck.
- Carlisle's defence brought the United striker down unfairly. The referee declared a penalty.
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take in
- Comprehend; deceive; make clothes smaller
- I was thinking of something else and didn't take much of what was said in, I'm afraid.
- She took me in with her story until I found out she had lied all along.
- I lost too much weight and they had to take my dress in before the wedding.
-
take over
- Asumir (el control), apoderarse
- Mr Nelson's company will take our company over on the first of April. From then on Mr Nelson will be in charge and you should direct further questions to him.
-
tear down
- Demolish
- They tore my house down while I was on holiday. Apparently a lorry crashed into the front and it would have fallen down anyway.
-
tear up
- Romper, hacer pedazos
- You might as well tear that contract up for what it's worth. They've gone out of business and can't honour it.
- They've torn the pavement up to make way for a new cycle path.
-
tell apart
- Distinguish between two things
- My husband is a twin. Sometimes it's difficult to tell him apart from his brother because they are both so alike.
-
tell off
- reganar, renir
- My father told me off for coming home late last night, and now I can't go out for the rest of the week.
-
think over
- Consider something
- I don't know if I approve of your plans for the caf�. I'll have to think it over for a while and consider the consequences of such dramatic changes.
-
think through
- Estudiar/considerar detenidamente
- I think the business failed because we hadn't thought all the problems through before we started.
-
think up
- Create or invent
- Flight! Whoever thought that up must have been either crazy or a genius
-
throw away
- Discard without consideration
- There are people out there who want to use you and then just throw you away when they have finished with you
-
throw over
- Cover with something
- They came racing up the stairs with a bucket of sand, ready to throw it over what we assumed was an incendiary bomb.
-
tie up
- Secure something with cord, string, rope etc.
- White attacked the couple, tied them up and forced him and Sheila Stroud to drive to the beach.
-
tire out
- Agotar,dejar exhausto
- All you end up doing is millions of conferences that just tire you out and exhaust you.
-
touch up
- retocar (mejorar la apariencia), sobar (tocar con intencion sexual)
- I'm too lazy to paint the whole room so I just touched the bits up that were very dirty or worn.
- Dirty sod tried to touch me up in the lift. Put his hand under my skirt. I didn't half slap him on the face, I can tell you. He won't try that again in a hurry.
-
try on
- Wear clothes to check the fit
- I tried the jacket and the trousers on before I bought them. They were a perfect fit.
-
try out
- Test something
- I'd like to try the car out before I buy it. Do you have one I could borrow for the day?
- The good thing about the computer program is you can try it out before you buy it.
-
turn down
- Reduce in intensity; reject an offer
- Turn the fire down. It's very hot in here.
- Thanks for the invitation, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to turn it down. I've already agreed to go to Mary's party.
-
turn on
- Attract or give pleasure; start a machine or device
- She really knows how to turn me on! I just can't get enough of her.
- Turn the lights on! It's very dark in here.
-
turn out
- Producir, apagar (la luz)
- My factory can turn thirty thousand clips out an hour. That's much faster than an army could do it by hand.
- Quick! Turn the lights out! There's a cop coming and he'll see us.
-
wash away
- llevarse (el agua)
- That was a very high tide last night. It's completely washed my front wall away.
-
wash down
- beber para ayudar a tragar algo, beber para acompanar la comida
- Here, have a drink of water to help wash those tablets down.
- We washed the meal down with an excellent Rioja.
-
wash off
- Remove contaminant with water
- That's paint stripper! You'd better wash it off your car roof or you'll have no paint left. Use plenty of water.
-
wash out
- Ruin of an event due to rain
- The rain washed the festival out this year. It's a shame. So many people put in so much work to make it happen. Perhaps it'll be better weather next year.
-
wear away
- erosionar, desgastar
- The action of the waves over millennia has worn the cliffs away leaving strange columns of limestone standing in the water.
-
wear down
- Weaken; reduce through use
- My job has begun to wear me down. It's so stressful. I think I have to get another one soon.
- Fifty thousand miles and I've worn two sets of tyres down on my car. Now I have to replace them for the third time this year.
-
wear out
- gastar, desgastar, desgastarse
- I only ever buy one pair of shoes. A good pair that will last a long time. Then I wear them until I wear them out. Then I buy another pair.
-
wind down
- reducir (la produccion de algo), desinflarse (perder energia o poder)
- At least we had plenty of warning of the closure. No one buys cathode ray tubes anymore so we've been winding production down for the past six months. With TFT screens becoming more popular it was inevitable that we should close the company.
-
wind up
- terminar (end up), cerrar,liquidar (una empresa) dar cuerda
- You'll wind up in prison
- It really winds me up that the management didn't pre-warn us that they were winding the company up.
- Twice a day I have to wind every clock up in the house or they stop working. Twelve clocks is eleven too many.
-
wipe off
- Remove contaminants using a cloth or similar
- Waitress! Can you wipe the crumbs off this table? We'd like to eat.
-
wipe out
- aniquilar, exterminar
- If a big meteorite or an asteroid hit the Earth they think that it would completely wipe humans out, just like the dinosaurs.
-
work off
- quemar (calorias), desahogar (frustracion)
- Lose weight! Work those pounds off in the gym.
- Japanese factories have a stress room where employees can work their frustrations off by hitting life-size dummies resembling their
-
work out
- Find a solution to a problem
- They had some big difficulties in the first years of their marriage but they worked them out. They're still married after forty years.
- Work the answer out for yourself. Just read the instructions.
-
write off
- destrozar (siniestro total), cancelar (una deuda), descartar (una posibilidad)
- How is your car now? It was a bad accident."
- They say I've written it off. I hope the insurance pays out soon because I really need a new one."
-
write out
- copiar detalladamente
- I normally have to write my notes out completely if I'm to remember anything at all about the lessons. It takes a long time, but I get much better exam results.
-
write up
- Make a complete written account
- I wrote the report up and submitted it to the prosecutor. Now they knew as much about the incident as I did.
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