six

six of one and half a dozen of the other

about the same one way or another. It

doesn’t matter to me which way you do it.

It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.

What difference does it make? They’re

both the same—six of one and half a

dozen of the other.

sixth sense a supposed power to know or

feel things that are not perceptible by the

five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste,

and touch. I have a sixth sense that told

me to avoid going home by my usual route.

Later I discovered there had been a fatal

accident on it.  Jane’s sixth sense de-

manded that she not trust Tom, even

though he seemed honest enough.

size someone or something up to observe

someone or something to get informa-

tion; to check someone or something. The

comedian sized the audience up and de-

cided not to use his new material. T I like

to size up a situation before I act.

skate on thin ice to be in a risky situation.

(Also literal. See also on thin ice.) I try

to stay well informed so I don’t end up

skating on thin ice when the teacher asks

me a question. You are skating on thin

ice when you ask me that!

a skeleton in the closet and skeletons

in the closet a hidden and shocking se-

cret. You can ask anyone about how re-

liable I am. I don’t mind. I don’t have any

skeletons in the closet. My uncle was in

jail for a day once. That’s our family’s

skeleton in the closet.

skin and bones Go to nothing but skin and

bones.

skin someone alive to be very angry with

someone; to scold someone severely.

(Folksy.) I was so mad at Jane that I

could have skinned her alive. If I don’t

get home on time, my parents will skin me

alive.

skip bail Go to jump bail.

skip out (on someone or something) to sneak

away from someone or some event; to

leave someone or an event in secret.

(Slang.) I heard that Bill skipped out

on his wife. I’m not surprised. I thought

he should have skipped out long ago.

skip rope to jump over an arc of rope that

is passed beneath one’s feet then over

one’s head, repeatedly. The children

skipped rope on the playground. The

boxer skipped rope while training.

The sky’s the limit. There is no limit to the

success that can be achieved or the

money that can be gained or spent. If

you take a job with us, you’ll find the pro-

motion prospects very good. The sky’s the

limit, in fact. The insurance salesmen

were told that the sky was the limit when

it came to potential earnings.

slack off 1. to taper off; to reduce gradu-

ally. Business tends to slack off during

the winter months. The storms begin to

slack off in April. 2. to become less active;

to become lazy or inefficient. Near the

end of the school year, Sally began to slack

off, and her grades showed it. John got

fired for slacking off during the busy

season.

a slap in the face an insult; an act that

causes disappointment or discourage-

ment. Losing the election was a slap in

the face for the club president. Failing to

get into a good college was a slap in the face

to Tim after his years of study.

slap someone on the wrist Go to give some-

one a slap on the wrist.

slap someone’s wrist Go to give someone a

slap on the wrist.

slap something together Go to throw some-

thing together.

slated for something scheduled for some-

thing. (Refers to a schedule written on a

slate.) John was slated for Friday’s game,

but he couldn’t play with the team. Ann

is slated for promotion next year.

slated to do something scheduled to do

something. John was slated to play ball

Who is slated to work this

weekend?

a slave to something someone who is under

the control of something; someone who

is controlled by something. (Preceded by

be, become, seem like, or act like.) Mary

is a slave to her job. Bill is a slave to his

drug addiction.

sleep in to oversleep; to sleep late in the

morning. If you sleep in again, you’ll get

fired. I really felt like sleeping in this

morning.

sleep like a baby Go to sleep like a log.

sleep like a log and sleep like a baby

to sleep very soundly. Everyone in our

family sleeps like a log, so no one heard the

fire engines in the middle of the night.

Nothing can wake me up. I usually sleep

like a baby.

sleep on something to think about some-

thing overnight; to weigh a decision over-

night. I don’t know whether I agree to

do it. Let me sleep on it. I slept on it, and

I’ve decided to accept your offer.

sleep something off to sleep while the effects

of liquor or drugs pass away. John

drank too much and went home to sleep

it off. T Bill is at home sleeping off the ef-

fects of the drug they gave him.

slick as a whistle Go to (as) slick as a

whistle.

slip away and slip off; slip out to go

away or escape quietly or in secret. I

slipped away when no one was looking.

Let’s slip off somewhere and have a little

talk. I’ll try to slip out for an hour or two

when Tom is asleep.

slip off Go to slip away.

a slip of the tongue an error in speaking

where a word is pronounced incorrectly,

or where something that the speaker did

not mean to say is said. I didn’t mean

to tell her that. It was a slip of the tongue.

I failed to understand the instructions

because the speaker made a slip of the

tongue at an important point.

slip one’s mind [for something that was to

be remembered] to be forgotten. I

meant to go to the grocery store on the way

home, but it slipped my mind. My birth-

day slipped my mind. I guess I wanted to

forget it.

slip through someone’s fingers to get away

from someone; for someone to lose track

(of something or someone). (Also lit-

eral.) I had a copy of the book you want,

but somehow it slipped through my fingers.

There was a detective following me, but

I managed to slip through his fingers.

slip up to make an error. (Informal. Also

without up.) Try as hard as you can to

do it right and not slip up. Everything

was going fine until the last minute when

I slipped up.

slippery as an eel Go to (as) slippery as

an eel.

slow as molasses in January Go to (as)

slow as molasses in January.

slow going the rate of speed when one is

making progress. It was slow going at

first, but I was able to finish the project

by the weekend. Getting the heavy rocks

out of the field is slow going.

slow on the draw 1. slow in drawing a

gun. (Slang. Compare this with quick on

the draw. Cowboy and gangster talk.)

Bill got shot because he’s so slow on the

draw. The gunslinger said, “I have to

be fast. If I’m slow on the draw, I’m dead.”

2. and slow on the uptake slow to fig-

ure something out; slow-thinking.

(Slang. Compare this with quick on the

draw.) Sally didn’t get the joke because

she’s sort of slow on the draw. Bill—

who’s slow on the uptake—didn’t get the

joke until it was explained to him.

slow on the uptake Go to slow on the

draw.

slow someone or something down Go to slow

someone or something up.

slow someone or something up and slow some-

one or something down to cause someone

or something to reduce speed. (The

phrases with up are informal.) I’m in

a hurry. Don’t try to slow me down. T

Please slow up the train. There are sheep

near the track.

slower and slower at a decreasing rate of

speed; slow and then even slower. The

car is going slower and slower and will stop

soon. The dog’s breathing got slower and

slower as it went to sleep.

slower than molasses in January Go to

(as) slow as molasses in January.

slow(ly) but sure(ly) slowly but with a

purpose; slowly and deliberately. (The ex-

pression without the -ly is informal.)

Slowly but surely, the little train reached

the top of the mountain. Progress was

slow but sure. Someday we would be

finished.

sly as a fox Go to (as) sly as a fox.

smack-dab in the middle right in the

middle. (Informal.) I want a big help-

ing of mashed potatoes with a glob of but-

ter smack-dab in the middle. Tom and

Sally were having a terrible argument, and

I was trapped—smack-dab in the middle.

small fry 1. unimportant people. (Small fry

are small, juvenile fish.) The police

have only caught the small fry. The leader

of the gang is still free. You people are

just small fry! I want to talk to the boss.

2. children. Peter’s taking the small fry

to the zoo. We should take the small fry

to the pantomime.

small hours (of the night) and wee

hours (of the night) the hours imme-

diately after midnight. The dance went

on into the small hours of the night. Jim

goes to bed in the wee hours and gets up

at lunchtime.

the small print and the fine print the part

of a document that is not easily noticed,

often because of the smallness of the

print, and that often contains important

information. You should have read the

small print before signing the contract.

You should always read the fine print in an

insurance policy.

small-time small; on a small scale. (Infor-

mal.) Our business is small-time just

now, but it’s growing. He’s a small-time

crook.

smear campaign (against someone) a cam-

paign aimed at damaging someone’s rep-

utation by making accusations and

spreading rumors. The politician’s op-

ponents are engaging in a smear campaign

against him. Jack started a smear cam-

paign against Tom so that Tom wouldn’t

get the manager’s job.

smell a rat to suspect that something is

wrong; to sense that someone has caused

something wrong. (Slang.) I don’t think

this was an accident. I smell a rat. Bob had

something to do with this. The minute

I came in, I smelled a rat. Sure enough, I

had been robbed.

smell to high heaven Go to stink to high

heaven.

smile on someone or something to be favorable

to someone or something. Fate smiled

on me and I got the job.  Lady luck

smiled on our venture and we made a

profit.

smoke and mirrors deception and confu-

sion. (Said of statements or more com-

plicated rhetoric used to mislead people

rather than inform. Refers to the way a

magician uses optical illusion to create

believability while performing a trick.)

Most people know that the politician was

just using smoke and mirrors to make

things look better than they really were.

Her report was little more than smoke and

mirrors. No one will believe any of it.

smoke someone or something out to force

someone or something out (of some-

thing), perhaps with smoke. (In cowboy

or gangster talk this refers to the smoke

from gunfire.) There was a mouse in

the attic, but I smoked it out. T The sher-

iff and the deputies smoked out the bank

robbers.

smooth as glass Go to (as) smooth as

glass.

smooth as silk Go to (as) smooth as silk.

smooth something out Go to smooth some-

thing over.

smooth something over and smooth some-

thing out to reduce the intensity of an ar-

gument or a misunderstanding; to try to

make people feel better about something

that has happened. (Also literal.) Mary

and John had a terrible argument, and

they are both trying to smooth it over.

Let’s get everyone together and try to

smooth things out. We can’t keep on argu-

ing with one another. T We can smooth

over the whole affair.

a snake in the grass a low and deceitful

person. Sally said that Bob couldn’t be

trusted because he was a snake in the grass.

“You snake in the grass!” cried Sally.

“You cheated me.”

snap out of something to become suddenly

freed from a state. (Informal. The state

can be a depression, an illness, uncon-

sciousness, etc.) I was very depressed for

a week, but this morning I snapped out of

it. It isn’t often that a cold gets me down.

Usually I can snap out of it quickly.

snap something up 1. to grab and buy some-

thing. I always snap bargains up when-

ever I go shopping. T I went to the store,

and they had soup on sale, so I snapped up

plenty. 2. to make something go faster.

You’re playing this music too slowly. Snap

it up! T This performance is getting slow

and dull. Let’s snap up the whole thing!

sniff someone or something out to locate some-

one or something. (Also literal.) T I’ll see

if I can sniff out the correct stylus for your

stereo.  Billy was lost, but by looking

around, we were able to sniff him out.

snug as a bug in a rug Go to (as) snug

as a bug in a rug.