English sports idioms

Methods of the Study The study is planned to bring readers an introduction and analysis the deprived meaning of English sports idioms used commonly in daily life through their literal m

Supervisor: Lê Thị Ánh Tuyết, M.A

Student: Bùi Vân Nga Date of birth:14/12/1993 Course: K18A2(2011-2015)

Hanoi - 2015

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DECLARATION

Title: English Sports Idioms

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under very strict guidance of my supervisor

Hanoi, April 27th , 2015

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Ms Le Thi Anh Tuyet,

my supervisor, for her outstanding support and precious advice that have helped me accomplish this paper

I also want to express my thanks to all the teachers at the faculty, especially my supervisor, who gave me great guidance in my first days of seeking the topic

In addition, my thanks are also sent to my family and friends who provide me lots

of encouragement and assistance during the time of finishing the study

Hanoi, April 2015

Bùi Vân Nga

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CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 6

1.Rationale 6

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study 7

3 Scope of the Study 7

4 Methods of the Study 8

5 Design of the Study 8

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 9

CHAPTER 1:LITERATURE REVIEW 9

1.1 IDIOMS 9

1.1.1.What Is an Idiom? 9

1.1.2 Idiom and Culture 11

1.1.3 Parlance 12

1.1.4 Classification 12

1.2 SPORTS 17

1.2.1 What Is Sport? 17

1.2.2 Etymology 17

1.2.3 History 17

1.2.4 Classification of Sports 18

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY ABOUT SPORTS IDIOMS 20

2.1 PROCEDURE 20

2.2.DATA COLLECTION 20

2.2.1 In Terms of Frequency 21

2.2.2 In Terms of Structure 22

2.2.3 In Terms of Semantics 22

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2.3 SPORTS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH 23

2.3.1 TEAM SPORTS IDIOMS 23

2.3.2 WATER SPORTS IDIOMS 30

2.3.3 TRACK AND FIELD HORSE RACING IDIOMS 34

2.3.4 HUNTING AND SHOOTING IDIOMS 37

2.3.5 COMBAT SPORTS IDIOMS 40

2.3.6 TARGET BALL SPORTS IDIOMS 43

2.3.7 TENNIS AND COURT IDIOMS 45

2.3.8 SKYDIVING AND FLYING IDIOMS 45

2.3.9 GAME AND CARDS IDIOMS 46

CHAPTER 3: APPLICATION OF THE STUDY 49

3.1 APPLICAION IN COMMUNICATION: 49

3.2 APPLICATION IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IDIOMS 49

PART C: CONCLUSION 56

REFERENCES 58

English is always described as the first global lingua franca English is the dominant international language in communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy The influence of the British Empire is the primary reason for the initial spread of the language far beyond the British Isles Since World War II, the growing economic and cultural influence of the United States has significantly accelerated the adoption of English A working knowledge

of English is required in certain fields, professions and occupations As a result, over a billion people speak English at least at a basic level English is one of six official languages of the United Nations Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language, as of 2006 English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish However, when combining native and non- native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages, depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as “languages” or “dialects” Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined

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At present, more and more Vietnamese people have been learning English in hope

of being able to communicate well with native speakers However, they often find

it hard to have an approach with foreigner because language generally and English particularly is not simply a normal system of sounds, words, and grammatical structures, it has developed its own way English people often tend to use idiomatic expressions that not all English learners know exactly their meaning In fact, idioms have long played an important role in English and Vietnamese language as well, and the use of idiom is definitely widespread, which makes us feel necessary

to know and understand English idioms as many as we can

In my graduation paper, I would like to study English sports idioms in attempt to help English learners be capable of using English partly as native speakers do

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

There is an undeniable fact that idioms make a lot of learners confused in using them effectively and correctly Understanding most of all idioms is quite hard for them Thus, studying the issue basing on colorful topics is actually useful To be honest, the main purpose of this study is to help myself get more knowledge on idioms in general and sports idioms in particular Besides, I hope that those who are keen on idioms will find something new and interesting in my study

3 Scope of the Study

Due to the limitation of a graduation paper as well as my knowledge, I do not have intention of covering all the matters that are related to idioms Therefore, I just focus on English sports idioms that are the most interesting and popular Apart from that main part, I also mention general views of idioms and the applications of the study.

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4 Methods of the Study

The study is planned to bring readers an introduction and analysis the deprived meaning of English sports idioms used commonly in daily life through their literal meaning almost used in sports Hence, to achieve the above aims, some study methods are used and applied as follows:

- Data collection method: to gather English sports idioms from lots of sources such

as books, internet…

- Statistics, quality, quantity method: to find out what kind of sports that consists of the most idioms and what grammatical structures frequently used in sports idioms -Analysis method: to figure out how amazingly interesting sports idioms figurative meaning is

5 Design of the Study

My graduation paper is clearly divided into three parts and three chapters as follows:

PART A: INTRODUCTION

It consists of the rationale, scope, aims, methods and design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: An overview of idioms and sports is introduced in this chapter

Chapter 2: Statistics tables are shown to find out what kind of sports and what grammatical structures are used most in sports idioms

The most interesting idioms of each kind of sports are analyzed are explained together with specific examples

Chapter 3:The application of the study in communication, teaching and learning PART C: CONCLUSION

All the mentioned chapters are summed up and my viewpoint on sports idioms

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DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 IDIOMS

1.1.1 What Is an Idiom?

Idioms, which can easily be found in any languages, are widely used in daily life Therefore, to learn and understand them is really essential for those who desire to master a language Obviously, English is not an exception as it contains a lot of interesting idioms with all kinds In spite of the undeniable popularity of idioms, it will be a rather hard challenge for any linguists to define what idiom is because each linguist has her own viewpoint about the definition of idiom Below are some

of the most popular definitions of idioms:

It is quoted in Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: “An idiom is a group of words in a fixed order that has a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word understood on its own.”

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines: “An idiom is a phrase or a sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learned as the whole unit.”

(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,1991,p 616)

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary in English refers: “ An idioms is a group of words whose meaning is different from the meaning of each separate word put together.”

(Longman Dictionary of Contemporary in English,1995,p708)

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Wikipedia cites: “An idiom is an expression, which is a term or phrase whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use.”

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom)

A definition in Wester’s New World College Dictionary is “ An idiom is a phrase, construction or expression that is recognized as a unit in the usage of given language and either differ from the usual syntactic pattern of its parts taken together.”

(Wester’s New World College Dictionary, 1997,p5)

In Vietnamese, an idiom is defined as follows:

“ Thành ngữ là một cụm từ cố đinh gồm hai hoặc ba từ và không thể hiểu được nghĩa bằng cách ghép nghĩa riêng của từng từ với nhau.”

(Thành Ngữ Tiếng Anh Giàu Hình Ảnh, 1999, p10)

“ Thành ngữ là tập hợp từ cố định đã quen dùng mà nghĩa của nó không thể giải thích một cách đơn giản bằng nghĩa của các tử tạo nên nó.”

(Từ điển Tiếng Việt, 1988)

“ Thành ngữ là một loại tổ hợp từ cố định, bền vững về hình thái, cấu trúc, hoàn chỉnh, bong bẩy về nghĩa, được sử dụng rộng rãi trong giao tiếp hàng ngày.”

(Thành ngữ học tiếng Việt, 2004, p25)

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“ Thành ngữ là một phần câu sẵn có, nó là một bộ phận của câu mà nhiều người quen dùng nhưng tự nó không diễn đạt được ý trọn vẹn.”

(Thành ngữ- Tục ngữ Việt Nam)

1.1.2 Idiom and Culture

An idiom is generally a colloquial metaphor, a term which requires some foundation knowledge, information, or experience, to use only within a culture where parties must have common reference Idioms are, therefore, not considered a part of the language, but rather a part of a culture As cultures are typically localized, idioms are more often useful for that local context However, some idioms can be more universally used than others, and they can be easily translated; metaphorical meaning can be more easily deduced

The most common idioms can have deep roots, date back many centuries, and be traceable across many languages “To have blood on one’s hands” is a familiar example, whose meaning is relatively obvious, although the context within English literature may not be Many have been translates in other languages, and tend to become international

While many idioms are clearly based on conceptual metaphors such as “time as a substance”, “time as a path”, “love as war” or “up is more”, the idioms themselves are often not particularly essential, even when the metaphors themselves are For example, “spend time”, “battle of the sexes”, and “back in the day” are idiomatic and based on essential metaphors, but one can communicate perfectly well with or without them These “deep metaphors” and their relationship to human cognition are discussed by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (1980)

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In forms like “profits are up”, the metaphor is carried by “up” itself The phrase

“profits are up” is not itself an idiom Practically, anything measurable can be used

in place of “profits”: “crime is up”, “satisfaction is up”, “complaints are up”, etc Truly, essential idioms generally involve prepositions, for example “out of” or

“turn into”

Interestingly, many Chinese characters are idiomatic constructs, as their meanings are more often not traceable to a literal meaning of their assembled parts, or radicals because all characters are composed from a relatively small base of about

214 radicals, their assembled meanings follow several different modes of interpretation- from the pictographic to the metaphorical to those whose original meaning has been lost in history It may be a feature that helps everyday life

1.1.4 Classification

Idioms are classified into many ways with different criteria namely function, motivation, origin, subject and key word, etc However, in this study, I only have a special focus on their function, motivation and origin

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1.1.4.1 In Terms of Their Functions

Idioms functioning as noun phrases:

- Noun pair: The coordinator “and” is used to link a pair of nouns

Neck and neck (horse racing) – To be in a close tie with someone

The pros and cons – The advantage and disadvantage

Fun and game – Entertainment games

- Adjective + Noun: Noun as the main element in the phrase

Heavy weight (boxing) – A person of great influence or importance

Heavy hitter (boxing) – An important of influential individual or organization

Low blow (boxing) – An unscrupulous or unfair attack, action, or insult

Sticky wicket (cricket) – To be difficult or troublesome

A long shot (hunting) – Very difficult to do

- Noun + Prepositional phrase

Roll with the punches (boxing) – To take adversity in stride; to adapt to

difficult circumstances

Par for the course (golf) – An expected circumstance

Shot in the dark (hunting) – A guess

Hurler on the ditch (hurling) – A non- participant who criticizes from

outside

Idioms functioning as verb phrases:

- Verb pair: “And” is used as the linking device between two verbs

Give and take

Come and go

Hum and haw

- Phrase verb: Most verbs combine with particles

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To kick off (football) – To start

To play along with (sports generally) – To coordinate

To get over – To recover

To look up to – To respect

- Verb phrase: Verbs and prepositional phrases or noun phrases

To take a rain check (baseball) – To accept at a later time

To throw in the towel (boxing) - To give up

Take the bull by the horns (bull fighting) – To accept challenge and try

your hardest

To race against time (track) – There is almost no time left to accomplish

something

To learn the ropes (sailing) - To understand new things

To hold all the aces (cards) – Expected to win or succeed

Idioms functioning as prepositional phrases:

Down and out (boxing) – To be in a bad situation and to need help

Over and above – Beside

Of old – Formerly

Of late – Recently

Idioms functioning like comparative structures

- With “like” structure:

Swim like a fish (swimming) – Swim very well

Go like a bomb (track) – Drive very fast

- With “as…as” structure:

As cold as ice – Very cold

As busy as a bee – Very busy

As bright as the light – Very bright

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As hot as fine – Very hot

1.1.4.2 In Terms of Their Meaning

Clearly, there is no need to have an argument on the very popularity of idioms However, some of them are easy to guess the meaning whereas the rest of them are nearly unable to predict the meaning Idioms, therefore, can be divided into two following kinds:

Idioms with predictable meaning

No sweat – No problem

Saved by the bell (boxing) – To be saved from misfortune or

unpleasantness by a timely interruption

The ball is in your court (tennis) – It’s your decision or responsibility to do

something now

Win by a nose (horse racing) – To finish just a little better than the next

person or business

Race against time – To hurry to meet a deadline

Idioms with unpredictable meaning

Seven sheets in the wind (sailing) – To be drunk, usually on alcohol

To be for the high jump (high jump) – To be in a very serious trouble

Give something a fair shake (gambling) – Try for a while before giving up Not playing with a full deck of cards (cards) – Not having full brain

capacity

Get a second wind (sailing) – Having a burst of energy after tiring

1.1.4.3 In Terms of Their Origins

Idioms are produced in a variety of aspects of life namely sports, business, military, agriculture etc

Sport idioms:

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Bail out (sailing) – To help, to save

Bark up the wrong tree – To make a wrong choice

Business idioms:

Red ink – Debt

Sell hotcakes – To sell very quickly

Military idioms:

Armed to the teeth – To be heavily armed

To fight a losing battle

Agriculture idioms:

To put one’s hand to plough

Some interesting idioms have their own history, for example:

Armed to the teeth – To be heavily armed

This is a pirate phrase originating in Port Royal Jamaica in the 1600’s Having only single shot black powder weapons, they would carry many of these weapons

at once to keep up the fight In addition, they carried a knife in their teeth for maximum arms capability

Break a leg – A wish of good luck

“Break a leg” is sourced in superstition It is a wish of good luck, but the words

“wis” just the opposite It was once common for people to believe in Sprites Sprites are actually spirits of ghosts that were believed to enjoy wrecking havoc and causing trouble If the Sprites heard you ask for something, they were reputed

to try to make the opposite happen Telling someone to “break a leg” is an attempt

to outsmart the Sprites and in fact make something good happen, sort of a medieval reserve psychology

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Cooking with gas – To work fast

It is common that gas stoves have not always been the norm Gas stoves started to

be available in the 1800’s, and until that time wood stoves were the standard Now you are “cooking with the gas” comes from an old advertisement for gas stoves The phrase suggests that gas is faster, easier, cleaner, better than cooking with wood

1.2 SPORTS

1.2.1 What Is Sport?

Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged

in competitions Sports commonly refers to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determiner of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment quality are major factors

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A wide range of sports were already established by the time of Ancient Greece and the military culture and the development of sports in Greece influenced one another considerably Sports became such a prominent part of their culture that the Greeks created the Olympic Games, which were held every four years in a small village in the Peloponnesus called Olympia in ancient time

Industrialization has brought increased leisure time to the citizens of developed and developing countries, leading to more time for citizens to attend and follow spectator sports, greater participation in athletic activities, and increased accessibility These trends continued with the advent of mass media and global communication Professionalism became prevalent, further adding to the increase

in sport’s popularity, as sports fans began following the exploits of professional athletes through radio, television, and the internet- while enjoying the exercise and competition associated with amateur participation in sports

In the new millennium, new sports have been going further from the physical aspect to the mental or psychological aspect of competing Cyber sports organization is getting more and more popular Activities where the outcome is determined by judgment over execution are considered performances or competition

1.2.4 Classification of Sports

There are many kinds of sports let alone traditional activities and games in each region considered as sports partly In an attempt to help readers recognize how colorful sports are, one system for classifying sport is introduced below, based more on the sport’s aim than on the actual mechanism The examples given are

intended to be illustrative rather than comprehensive

Sport – Opponent

• Combat (Wrestling, judo, karate, boxing, fencing, taekwondo ….)

Sport – Achievement

• Target (Archery, shooting…)

• Display (Gymnastics, bodybuilding, diving…)

• Strength (Weight- lifting, triple jump…)

Sport – Sports that fall into multiple categories

• Curling

• Paintball

On the whole, like in Vietnamese literature, idioms came into being very early and had a profound effect in the spiritual life of English people Idioms have a tremendous vitality and hold a prime position Idioms related to sports also become such an essential part of English culture during history length Sport idioms, as a special way, have lived on today

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CHAPTER 2 THE STUDY ABOUT SPORTS IDIOMS

The purpose of this part is to collect sports idioms to make the semantic meanings and syntactic characteristics clear as well in order to figure out what is the most widely- used sport in idioms The study is based on the quantity, quality and statistics methods

2.1 PROCEDURE

To write my graduation paper with the topic of sports idioms, I firstly collected all the idioms relating to sports from many sources namely books, internet links and newspapers After collecting them, I classified them into kinds of sports such as team sports idioms, water sports idioms, track and field horse racing sports idioms, combat sports idioms, cards and games idioms, skydiving and flying sports idioms, tennis and court sports idioms, target ball sports idioms, hunting and shooting idioms Secondly, they were divided into 3 small categories: in terms of frequency, structure, semantics to find out what kind of sports is used most in idioms and understand more about sports idioms’ structure as well as semantics

2.2 DATA COLLECTION

After studying books and searching information from various links on the Internet,

I have finally found 100 sports idioms and divided them into different categories as follows

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2.2.1 In Terms of Frequency

Kinds of sports Total Percentage

3 Track and field horse racing

sports idioms

4 Hunting & shooting idioms 14 14

7 Tennis & court sports idioms 2 2

8 Skydiving & flying idioms 1 1

Total 9 100 100

Table 2.1 – In terms of frequency

Looking at the table, it is very clear to realize the highest frequency is water sports idioms and team sports idioms with 26 and 25 idioms respectively, as team sports and water sports are often chosen to play and practice by a lot of people all over the world Hunting and shooting idioms (14), followed by Track and field horse racing idioms(12); games and cards idioms(11) are less frequent The table also reveals that idioms which relate to combat, target ball, tennis court and skydiving & flying sports are the least frequent with 7,4,2,1 in turn

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2.2.2 In Terms of Structure

(%)

1 Idioms functioning as verb phrases 74 74

2 Idioms functioning as noun phrases 14 14

3 Idioms functioning as prepositional

Table 2.2 – In terms of structure

Sports idioms functioning as verb phrases are the most widely- used with the total

of 74 idioms Ranking the second are idioms functioning as noun and prepositional phrases with 14 and 12 idioms respectively Of 100 sports idioms I have studied, there is only one idiom functioning as comparative structure and one idiom with structure ( S+V+Adv)

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Total 3 100 100

Table 2.3 – In terms of semantics

In general, sports idioms’ level of semantics is quite equal as the table shows There are 37 idioms with positive meaning compared with 33 ones with negative meaning and 32 ones with neutral meaning

2.3 SPORTS IDIOMS IN ENGLISH

Sports, gambling and card games are a major part of the English way of living People in the United Kingdom work hard and play hard They love to play, because games have captured the English heart and mind Terms associated with play becoming Sports idioms generally originate from a specific sport such as baseball

or sailing Over time these phrases have come to mean something that can be used

in everyday life While most sports idioms can still be used when discussing about sports, they are even more common in other areas of life, especially the business world To not understand the games, their terms and idioms hinder communication This study is meant to remedy this situation, to teach all who want to learn how to

“play the game” If one understands the sport, the game and the way it is played, one will understand the idiomatic expressions deprived from these games

2.3.1 TEAM SPORTS IDIOMS

• Baseball idioms

Baseball is the most popular sport in the United States Some call it the national sport “Major league” baseball teams have the best professional players and more fans or people who watch the games A baseball team has nine people: the pitcher, the catcher, first, second and third basemen, the shortstop, the left, middle and right fielders Baseball is played on four bases, first, second, third and home, on a

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diamond shaped field The pitcher, the catcher, the basemen and the shortstop play

in the infield The fielders play in the “outfield” or the area around the infield The pitcher throws a ball to a “batter” on the opposing team, who tries to hit this ball with a “ bat” and run around the bases He gets a “hit” unless:

- The ball is caught before it hits the ground

- He is “tagged” with the ball when he is not on a base

- The ball is thrown and caught at first base, and in some circumstances at other bases, before he gets there

The batter is allowed three” strikes” and then he “strike” out A strike is any ball which crosses the plate between the top of the batter’s shoulders and his knees and

is not hit by the batter A ball is any pitched ball which is outside this strike zone and is not swung at by the batter The batter is allowed to “walk” to first base if the pitcher throws four to more balls Players make an “error” if they make a mistake

on a play that should have resulted in and out

Each team bats until it makes three outs An “inning” has been played when both teams have made three outs A game is nine innings unless the score is “tied” at the end of nine innings Then the game is played extra innings until one team has more

“runs” at the end of the extra innings A run is scored when a player runs around all the bases and touches the last or “home” plate or base The team with the most

“runs” win

To get to first base

A player is out if he doesn’t hit the ball hard enough to get to first base and is tagged out If he gets to first base, he may score a run Therefore, this idiom means:

“To advance something, to do well enough to get a good start on something”

E.g: I wish I could get to first base with my boss

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She received lots of compliments from her manager for getting to first base with customers

To drop the ball

Like many other ball games, in baseball if a player drops the ball, then he makes a mistake and also gives the chance to his opponent The figurative meaning of this idiom, therefore, is: “To blunder, to fail in some ways”

E.g: I have just dropped the ball to date with the girl next door

Last month, Jack dropped the ball to have his salary increased

To take a rain check

A baseball game will be cancelled and left to another time in case it is rained out The idiom is often used to express the fact that “ A date or meeting will be changed

or accepted at a later time”

E.g: Sorry, I can’t go to the movies today, but I’d love to take a rain check

Let’s take a rain check for that dinner date We can come next week

To touch base with someone

The literal meaning of the idiom is “To touch a base in any sport with bases”

But its figurative meaning is “To talk to someone about something”

E.g: We need to touch base with the firm before we make a final agreement

This idiom could also be deprived from the military

To pitch (throw) someone a curve/ cure ball

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The figurative meaning of this idiom is : “To surprise someone unpleasantly” Whereas the literal meaning refers to “To pitch a curve ball to the batter in baseball”

E.g: Henry were pitched a curveball when she just wanted to dance with him

E.g: I am sorry I couldn’t answer the question He threw a curve when he asked me about last year figures

Fast ball

In baseball, the ball is usually thrown very fast by the pitcher and it can be thrown

as fast as ninety to a hundred miles a hour The idiom “fast ball” is often used with the meaning: “To not understand a statement or fact, to lose an opportunity because

an opponent or competitor is quicker.”

E.g: It seems that I have been thrown fast ball as Peter had a date with Mary before

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The batsman or “striker” at this wicket tries to hit the ball away from the fielders of the opposing team so he can exchange places with his team’s batsman at the other wicket thereby scoring a run Still a popular sport in Great Britain, cricket was overtaken by baseball as a popular sport in the United States

Wicket

The original meaning of wicket used in sports: “To have trouble hitting the ball through a wicket”

E.g: I can’t seem to get my ball through that sticky wicket

The figurative meaning of wicket: “To be difficult or troublesome ”

• American Football Idioms

Like many of our games, American football derived from English games The colonists brought a form of soccer with them, which was later played at east coast universities These universities then tried another English game, rugby, which became more popular than soccer The ball in rugby could be moved with the hands, as well as the feet, in the second part of the nineteenth century Walter Camp attended Yale University and played rugby, which he liked but thought could be improved He changed many of the rules of rugby to make a new game, the early version of American football Further changes have been made in the game in the

20th century Two teams of eleven men meet on a field that is 100 yards long The game begins when one team kicks the ball to the other team Players are lined up in formations or lines, with an offensive and defensive line The team receiving the ball is the offensive team It tries to move the ball down the field towards the opponent’s goal for a touchdown The offensive team has four chances (plays or downs) in which to do this If the ball is moved 10 yards within the four downs, a

To sideline primarily

When an American football player is sidelined primarily, it means that he is taken out of the game or injured So, the idiom “sidelined primarily” is used to refer to:

“To stop working on something”

E.g: We better sideline that project

I was told to sideline my work as a fire fighter

To hold the line

In front of the defense line, there are always seven men trying to stay in their position in order to prevent opponent’s attack The second meaning of the idiom is:

“To stay not move”

E.g: Hold the line on that offer We are not going to pay any more

E.g: Hold the line on everything The police will appear in 3 minutes

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Let’s punt

In an America football game, “Let’s punt” is usually spoken out by players from both teams with the meaning “To kick the ball to the opposing team, usually on the fourth down, when the ball needs to be turned over to the opposing team” Another meaning of “Let’s punt” is “No more options, there is nothing more one can do” E.g: They are not going to sign the contract Let’s punt

I will get married to Linda Let’s punt

To drop back

Literally the idiom means: “To move back behind the offensive line in order to pass or run around”, but it is understood figuratively as: “To go back”

E.g: She was shy and dropped back to her house

Tomorrow I drop back to my school

To start the ball rolling

The first meaning of the idiom is: “To start a football game by kicking the ball to the opposing team”; “To begin something” is its second meaning

E.g: Please can everyone be seated so we can start the ball rolling

We have to start the ball rolling now in case the manager changes his mind

• Basketball Idioms

Basketball is a relatively young game Whereas football and baseball developed gradually from games brought from other countries, basketball was invented in the United States late in the nineteenth century by a Dr Naismith as a game to be played indoors during the winter The “basket” in basketball refers to the fruit baskets used for balls in the early days of the game Other societies, such as the Aztecs, have used balls and rings on walls, but the rules were different