Archive for the 'Work' Category
Phrasal Verb: slave away
To slave away is to work extremely hard, with little or no rest.
Examples of use:
1. She's been slaving away in the garden all day.
2. They slaved away night and day to finish the building project by the deadline.
3. Where's Monica?
She's slaving away in the kitchen as usual.
4. I'm tired of slaving away at the computer. Let's take a break.
| infinitive |
slave away |
| present simple |
slave away and slaves away |
| -ing form |
slaving away |
| past simple |
slaved away |
| past participle |
slaved away |
Can you think of any ways to use the phrasal verb 'slave away' in a sentence?
What do you slave away at?
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Idiom: burn the candle at both ends
To burn the candle at both ends is to get very little sleep or rest because you are working or studying (or celebrating) late into the night, and then starting again very early in the morning. Your night is shortened like a candle burned at both ends.
Examples of use:
1. I'm so tired. I've been burning the candle at both ends trying to finish my thesis.
2. We used to burn the candle at both ends when we were young. Now we go to bed at 9pm every night!
3. If you want to be a successful athlete you can't burn the candle at both ends.
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Phrasal verb: bring in
To bring in is to earn an amount of income, or produce an amount of profit.
Examples of use:
1. Her job brings in enough to pay the bills, and that's all.
2. How much does your job bring in?
3. Our new business isn't bringing in much of an income at the moment.
4. She brings in an enormous income from the sale of her books.
5. Each sale of her book brings in $20
6. The sale of their house brought in a profit of £50,000
To bring in something (or bring something in) is to introduce a new law, legislation or rule.
1. The government brought in legislation to tackle discrimination.
2. Their Prime Minister says she will bring in new laws to regulate fees in private language schools.
| infinitive |
bring in |
| present simple |
bring in and brings in |
| -ing form |
bringing in |
| past simple |
brought in |
| past participle |
brought in |
Can you write a sentence with the phrasal verb 'bring in'?
Has the government in your country brought in any new laws recently?
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Phrasal Verb: get ahead
To get ahead is to be successful in your work or your life.
Examples of use:
1. I want to get ahead in my job so I work very long hours.
2. If you want to get ahead in life you must work hard and never give up.
3. She got ahead in her career by going to university and then working abroad for a year.
4. You’ll never get ahead with a negative attitude like that.
infinitive – get ahead
present simple – get ahead and gets ahead
-ing form – getting ahead
past simple – got ahead
past participle – got ahead
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Phrasal Verb: wind down
To wind down is to gradually relax after doing something that has made you feel tired or stressed, or after you have been worried about something.
Examples of use:
1. He likes to wind down with a glass of wine after a long day at work.
2. We spend the first week of our holiday just winding down by the swimmimg pool.
If a business or organisation winds down, or if somebody winds it down, the amount of business it does is gradually reduced until the business stops trading and closes down completely.
Example of use:
1. We’re both retiring next month, and moving closer to our grandchildren, so we’re slowly winding the business down.
infinitive – wind down
present simple – wind down and winds down
-ing form – winding down
past simple – wound down
past participle – wound down
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Idiom: have one’s work cut out
To have one’s work cut out is to achieve or complete something with great difficulty.
Examples of use:
1. We’re going to have our work cut out to finish this project before the deadline.
2. She has her work cut out raising four young children and working full time.
3. The Coastguard service had their work cut out when they rescued the ship’s crew during a storm.
Image by David Jones
Idiom: make light work of
To make light work of something is to achieve or complete something easily, without much effort or inconvenience.
Examples of use:
1. Alistair made light work of digging the garden. He’s finished already.
2. You two made light work of that ice cream. It’s all gone!
Image by emilio labrador
Idiom: work-to-rule
A work-to-rule is a form of industrial action where workers work exactly to their job descriptions, and do the absolute minimum according to their workplace rules.
Workers and Trade Unions carry out a work-to-rule when they want to make a protest to their employers, or to put pressure on them; for example to achieve better working conditions or higher pay.
work-to-rule is chiefly a British English expression.
Example of use:
According to the BBC, more than 300,000 public sector workers in the Republic of Ireland are to begin a national work-to-rule in protest at pay cuts introduced in the budget.
Image by David Jackmanson
Idiom: blue-collar worker
A blue-collar worker is someone who does manual work: work that usually requires them to wear work clothes or protective clothing such as overalls.
Example of use:
According to the Guardian newspaper, skilled and unskilled blue-collar workers have been hit much harder by the recession than white-collar workers.
Image by MairiMcCann
Idiom: white-collar worker
A white-collar worker is someone who has a non-manual job; especially someone who works in an office. Typically, people who wear shirts with white collars to work – such as office workers and office managers.
Example of use:
According to China Daily, a new report on the health of Chinese white collar workers shows that 76 percent of them are in poor health and are biologically 10 years older than their actual age.
See also, blue-collar workers
Image by Steve Parker
