B

babe in the woods a naive or innocent

person; an inexperienced person. Bill

is a babe in the woods when it comes to

dealing with plumbers.  As a painter,

Mary is fine, but she’s a babe in the woods

as a musician.

back and fill to act indecisively; to change

one’s direction repeatedly; to reverse

one’s course. (Originally nautical, refer-

ring to alternately filling the sails with

wind and releasing the wind.) The

president spent most of his speech backing

and filling on the question of taxation.

The other candidate was backing and fill-

ing on every issue, depending on whom she

was addressing.

back and forth backwards and forwards;

first one way and then another way.

(Compare this with to and fro.) The

young man was pacing back and forth in

the hospital waiting room. The pendu-

lum on the clock swung back and forth.

back down (from someone or something) and

back off (from someone or something) to

yield to a person or a thing; to fail to

carry through on a threat. Jane backed

down from her position on the budget.

It’s probably better to back down from

someone than to have an argument.

John agreed that it was probably better to

back down than to risk getting shot. Bill

doesn’t like to back off from a fight.

Sometimes it’s better to back off than to get

hurt.

back East to or from the eastern United

States, often the northeastern or New En-

gland states. (See also down South, out

West, and up North. This is used even by

people who have never been in the East.)

Sally felt that she had to get back East

for a few days. Tom went to school back

East, but his brother attended college in the

Midwest.

back in circulation 1. [for a thing to be]

available to the public again. (Said espe-

cially of things that are said to circulate,

such as money, library books, and mag-

azines.) I’ve heard that gold coins are

back in circulation in Europe. I would

like to read War and Peace. Is it back in

circulation, or is it still checked out? 2. [for

a person to be] socially active again; dat-

ing again after a divorce or breakup with

one’s lover. (Informal.) Now that Bill is

a free man, he’s back in circulation. Tom

was in the hospital for a month, but now

he’s back in circulation.

back off (from someone or something) Go to

back down (from someone or something).

back of the beyond the most remote

place; somewhere very remote. (Infor-

mal.) John hardly ever comes to the city.

He lives at the back of the beyond. Mary

likes lively entertainment, but her husband

likes to vacation in the back of the beyond.

back order something [for a merchant] to or-

der something that is not in stock and

then make delivery to the customer when

the goods become available. (The mer-

chant may hold your money until the or-

der is filled.) The store didn’t have the

replacement part for my vacuum cleaner,

so the manager back ordered it for me.

The shop had to back order some of the

items on my list.

back someone or something up to support

someone or something; to concur with

someone. (Also literal.) Please back me

up in this argument. T I would like you

to back up John in this discussion.

back the wrong horse to support some-

one or something that cannot win or suc-

ceed. (Also literal, as in horse racing.)

I don’t want to back the wrong horse, but

it seems to me that Jed is the better candi-

date. Fred backed the wrong horse in the

budget hearings.

back-to-back 1. adjacent and touching

backs. They started the duel by stand-

ing back-to-back. Two people who stand

back-to-back can manage to see in all di-

rections. 2. following immediately. (Said

of things or events.) The doctor had ap-

pointments set up back-to-back all day

long. I have three lecture courses back-

to-back every day of the week.

back to square one back to the beginning.

(Also literal with a board game. See also

the following entry.) Negotiations have

broken down, and it’s back to square one.

We lost the appeal of the court case, so

it’s back to square one.

back to the drawing board time to start

over again; it is time to plan something

over again. (Also literal. Note the varia-

tion in the examples.) It didn’t work.

Back to the drawing board. I f lunked

English this semester. Well, back to the old

drawing board.

back to the salt mines time to return to

work, school, or something else that

might be unpleasant. (As if the speaker

were a slave who works in the salt mines.)

It’s eight o’clock. Time to go to work!

Back to the salt mines. School starts in

the fall, and then it’s back to the salt mines

again.

bad as all that Go to (as) bad as all that.

bad-mouth someone or something to say bad

things about someone or something.

(Slang.) Mr. Smith was always bad-

mouthing Mrs. Smith. They didn’t get

along.  John bad-mouths his car con-

stantly because it doesn’t run.

bag and baggage and part and parcel

with one’s luggage; with all one’s posses-

sions. (Informal. See also part and par-

cel (of something).) Sally showed up at

our door bag and baggage one Sunday

morning. All right, if you won’t pay the

rent, out with you, bag and baggage!

Get all your stuff—part and parcel—out

of here!

bag of tricks a collection of special tech-

niques or methods. What have you got

in your bag of tricks that could help me

with this problem? Here comes Mother

with her bag of tricks. I’m sure she can

help us.

bail out (of something) 1. to jump out of an

airplane (with a parachute). John still

remembers the first time he bailed out of

a plane. When we get to 8,000 feet, we’ll

all bail out and drift down together. We’ll

open our parachutes at 2,000 feet. 2. to

abandon a situation; to get out of some-

thing. (Informal.) John got tired of

school, so he just bailed out. Please stay,

Bill. You’ve been with us too long to bail

out now.

bail someone or something out 1. [with some-

one] to deposit a sum of money that al-

lows someone to get out of jail while

waiting for a trial. John was in jail. I

had to go down to the police station to bail

him out. T You kids are always getting into

trouble. Do you really expect me to bail out

the whole gang of you every time you have

a problem? 2. [with something] to remove

water from the bottom of a boat by dip-

ping or scooping. Tom has to bail the

boat out before we get in. T You should

always bail out a boat before using it. 3. to

rescue someone or something from trou-

ble or difficulty. The proposed law was

in trouble, but Todd bailed it out at the last

minute. I was going to be late with my

report, but my roommate lent a hand and

bailed me out at the last minute.

bait and switch a deceptive merchandis-

ing practice where one product is adver-

tised to get people’s attention [the bait],

but pressure is applied to get the cus-

tomer to purchase a more expensive item.

Walter described the appliance store as

bait and switch, since they never seemed to

have in stock the bargains that they ad-

vertised. Max accused the merchant of

bait and switch and stalked out of the

store.

balance the accounts 1. and balance the

books to determine through accounting

that accounts are in balance, that all

money is accounted for. Jane was up all

night balancing the accounts.   The

cashier was not allowed to leave the bank

until the manager balanced the books. 2.

to get even [with someone]. Tom hit

Bob. Bob balanced the accounts by break-

ing Tom’s toy car. Once we have bal-

anced the accounts, we can shake hands

and be friends again.

balance the books Go to balance the

accounts.

bald as a baby’s backside Go to (as) bald

as a baby’s backside.

bald as a coot Go to (as) bald as a coot.

baleful as death Go to (as) baleful as

death.

ball and chain a person’s special burden;

a job. (Usually considered slang. Prison-

ers are sometimes fettered with a chain

attached to a leg on one end and a heavy

metal ball on the other.) Tom wanted

to quit his job. He said he was tired of that

old ball and chain. Mr. Franklin always

referred to his wife as his ball and chain.

ball of fire a very active and energetic per-

son who always succeeds. (Usually con-

sidered slang.) Sally is a real ball of

fire—she works late every night. Ann is

no ball of fire, but she does get the job

done.

balled up Go to (all) balled up.

the balls of one’s feet the bottom part of

the feet just under the toes. Mary got

blisters on the balls of her feet from play-

ing tennis. The dancer balanced on the

balls of his feet.

bang one’s head against a brick wall Go

to beat one’s head against the wall.

bank on something to count on something;

to rely on something. The weather ser-

vice said it wouldn’t rain, but I wouldn’t

bank on it. My word is to be trusted. You

can bank on it.

baptism of fire a first experience of some-

thing, usually something difficult or un-

pleasant. My son’s just had his first visit

to the dentist. He stood up to the baptism

of fire very well. Mary’s had her bap-

tism of fire as a teacher. She was assigned

to the worst class in the school.

the bare something the smallest amount of

something possible. Bob did the bare

minimum of work to pass the class.

Food, clothing, and shelter are the bare ne-

cessities of life.

bargain for something and bargain on some-

thing to plan for something; to expect

something. (Also literal. Informal.) We

knew it would be difficult, but we didn’t

bargain for this kind of trouble. I bar-

gained on an easier time of it than this.

bargain on something Go to bargain for some-

thing.

barge in (on someone or something) to break

in on someone or something; to interrupt

someone or something. Oh! I’m sorry.

I didn’t mean to barge in on you. They

barged in on the church service and caused

a commotion. You can’t just barge in like

that!

[bark is worse than one’s bite] Go to One’s

bark is worse than one’s bite.

bark up the wrong tree to make the

wrong choice; to ask the wrong person;

to follow the wrong course. (Refers to a

hunting dog’s error.) If you think I’m

the guilty person, you’re barking up the

wrong tree. The baseball players blamed

their bad record on the pitcher, but they

were barking up the wrong tree.

battle something out to argue something to

a conclusion; to fight something to a con-

clusion. The Senate and the House dis-

agree on the bill, so they will have to bat-

tle a compromise out. T The two young

toughs went into the alley to battle out

their disagreement.

bawl someone out to scold someone in a

loud voice. The teacher bawled the stu-

dent out for arriving late. T Teachers don’t

usually bawl out students.