To go dutch

Context #1 – Friends Having Dinner Together

Marc:That was a good dinner. Let me ask for the check.

Henry:Yeah, please do. Let me know how much I should cover.

Marc: No way man! I invited you to dinner.

Henry: I only agreed to dinner if we would go Dutch. So, no arguments. 

Marc: Okay, but next time, you have to let me pay.

Context #2 – Paying for the taxi

Vivian: It’s great to see you again. I ordered us a taxi.

Roy: How much was it? I want to cover for it.

Vivian: We never said we would go Dutch. You can pay the next taxi.

Roy: Okay, sure. But for dinner, we will go Dutch. The restaurant we’re going to is not cheap.

To “go Dutch” means to pay for one self. For example, if friends go out to dinner or planned activity, each person will pay for their own food, transportation, etc.

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To Diss Someone

          

Context #1 – Two guys who like the same girl

Vinnie: Hey, Brad. What's up?

Brad: Oh, hi. I’m just getting ready to go out with my girl.

Vinnie: Nice, dude. Is she in our class?

Brad: Yeah, it's Samantha.

Vinnie: What? Samantha is my girl. 
Brad: Well, not anymore.
Vinnie: No way! She would never go out with a guy who looks like you. You’re so ugly, you have to sneak up on your mirror so you don't scare yourself.

Brad: That's a really bad joke. You are dissing me because you’re just mad that Samantha is with me now.

Vinnie: I’m not joking. If you really want a joke, look in the mirror.

Brad: You can keep dissing me, but Samantha is a with a real man now, Vinnie!

To diss someone: a shortened version of “disrespect,” to purposely disrespect someone, to put someone down, to insult someone    

Context #2 – Two roommates are talking at home

Katrina: What’s wrong Cindy. You look sad.

Cindy: Oh, hey Katrina. I don’t know what to do. This woman at work is dissing me like every day. And I’m not good with a comeback.*

Katrina: Why don’t you tell her to stop? What does she say?

Cindy: She is so subtle about it that I look foolish if I tell her to stop dissing me. She will say things like “Oh no, Cindy, you look so pale today. Are you OK?” She said this to me after I came back from a Hawaii vacation and I looked great with my tan.

Katrina: Well, she is obviously just jealous. Why don’t you diss her back? The next time you see her, get a look of surprise on your face and say something like, “Was anyone else hurt in the accident that did this to you?"

Cindy: Ha, ha, ha!! That would be so funny, but I could never diss someone like that.

Katrina: OK. Well, I guess you will just have to ignore her every time she disses you. Instead, pretend you are talking about her until you have her attention and then just ignore everything she says!

Cindy: Sounds good to me!

Meaning: "To diss someone” is short for “to disrespect someone.” It usually involves insulting someone directly or indirectly. In context 1, Vinnie and Brad are both dating Samantha, so Vinnie starts dissing Brad by insulting his looks. In Context 2, Cindy is being dissed by a woman at work and does not have a good comeback (reply to the critical remark). Katrina gives Cindy an idea of how to diss the woman at work, but Cindy decides to just ignore that person. Please note that dissing someone should not frequently be used in daily situations and people should always be careful. Unless it's a joke, dissing someone could provoke a very extreme reaction in a person.

*Comeback – a quick reply to a critical remark

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To Luck Out

Context #1 – Two friends talking

Victoria:  Hey, Billy! I just lucked out and got tickets to see the Dodgers tonight at 6:00 PM. Do you want to join me?

Billy: Wow! You got playoff tickets? That’s amazing!

Victoria: I know! I just happened to tell my classmate how much I love the Dodgers and he is a season ticket holder. He offered me two tickets for free since he can’t go to the game.

Billy: That is so awesome. And I guess I lucked out too since you are inviting me!

To gain success or to gain something that was desired by chance; experience good luck. 

Context #2 – Two friends at school in the hallway

Perry: Hello, Gino. You look relieved. What’s up?

Gino: Well, I forgot about my final exam in Math today and I didn’t study at all. I only realized there would be a test when I got to class.

Perry:  Seriously? Why are you so calm about it? You must have bombed* that test.

Gino: No, that is why I’m so relieved. I totally lucked out because Professor Daniels was sick today, so the test was postponed until Monday. I have the whole weekend to study!

Perry: Oh, I see. I guess you really did luck out after all.

Meaning: "To luck out” means to get something good that you want by chance when least expecting it. In Context 1, Victoria was surprised that she got two free tickets to the Dodger playoff game because generally those tickets would be hard to get or just too expensive. In Context 2, Gino didn’t study at all for the test and would have probably failed it if the teacher had not been sick and postponed the test until Monday. He lucked out because now he can study for the test over the weekend and do much better.

*to fail at something

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To be stoked

Context #1: Marco and Cindy are siblings (brother and sister).

Marco: We have only 5 days left before our three month summer vacation.

Cindy: I know! I can't wait for us to go to Hawaii and surf all summer.

Marco: Me too! I'm so stoked about it.

Cindy: So are mom and dad. They are counting the days.

Marco: So are we!!

Cindy: Hahaha! That's true!

Context #2: Rafael and Juan are classmates

Juan: I'm so worried about the third class!!

Rafael: Why?

Juan: What do you mean "Why?" We have a test on 5 chapters!

Rafael: No, we don't.

Juan: Huh?

Rafael: Weren't you in class yesterday?

Juan: No, why?

Rafael: Professor Smith said that he won't test us until Monday, so we have the weekend to study for it.

Juan: Oh man! I'm so stoked about that. I was freaking out.

Meaning - To be very excited about something

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To be a Debbie Downer

Context #1: 

Cameron and Dave are friends. They are talking about a party.

Cameron: I'm so excited about our high school party!

Dave: Really? Why?

Cameron: I asked Julie out and she said that she'd be my date.

Dave: Hmm.. that's cool!

Cameron: What?

Dave: Nothing.

Cameron: I don't even see the point of you guys going out together. It's not like you are going to stay together or anything. You are going to two different colleges in two different states.

Dave: Man! Sometimes you are such a Debbie Downer.

Cameron: I'm just being realistic.

Dave: Actually, you are just being negative.

Context #2

Melanie and Valerie and are co-workers 

Melanie: I've worked at the flower shop for 5 years.

Valerie: Do you like it?

Melanie: It's okay.

Valerie: Just okay? We have such amazing benefits and our boss is so nice.

Melanie: Yeah, but sometimes the AC doesn't work and we don't have a place to park our cars.

Valerie: Well don't be a Debbie Downer and stop looking at just the negatives. Think of all the amazing positive things about the job!

Meaning - Someone who says something negative and ruins a positive environment. This idiom comes from Rachel Dratch's character, Debbie Downer, on Saturday Night Live.

 http://languagesystems.edu/

Pass the buck

Context #1:

Bob (Manager): Hi, Frank! I'll be leaving in about 15 minutes, but here is a list of things I need you to do on your shift. Please make sure all employees are on task. If they are not, you need to have a training meeting with them and do all the documentation for that. Also, Jackie needs to be fired, so please take care of that. Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow!

Frank (assistant manager): Uh, Ok Bob. I'll take care of that tonight.

Frank (on the phone with his wife): Honey, I need to find a new job. Bob, the manager has done it again. The company needs to fire an employee and he just passed the buck to me, like he does every time. He is the manager and he always requires me to do the difficult or unpleasant things. I've had to fire 2 people in the last year, and he's had to do it himself. 

Context #2

Teachers talking together during lunch

Teacher 1: I received a warning notice from the Principal this morning.

Teacher 2: What? Why?

Teacher 1: It seems that the parents of one of my students called to complain about me. They claimed that their son Billy isn't getting good scores on his weekly spelling tests because I am not reviewing or teaching him well enough. 

Teacher 2: That's ridiculous! I did my training with you and I know for a fact that you work hard to teach your students everything they need to know! I really wish parents would stop passing the buck to teachers and start spending more time helping their own children. 

Explanation:

To pass the buck is to pass the blame or responsibility of something negative to someone else. It is most often something negative. 

Use the preposition to to indicate who now has blame/responsibility. 

Ex: Bob passed the buck to Frank; Parents tend to pass the buck to teachers.

In context #1, an employee needs to be fired. Firing an employee is generally a negative and difficult thing to do. Bob did not want to do this, so he assigned this task to Frank even though Bob is the manager.

In context #2, a student's parents are not satisfied with their child's test scores and say it's the teacher's fault. NOT the student's fault and NOT the parent's fault. 

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Technicolor Yawn

Context:

Jackson and I were having a wonderful time at the LA County fair a couple of weeks ago. It's such a fun place to experience many different things about American culture. One of the most famous parts of the fair is the food. They have deep-fried everything! Deep-fried Oreo cookies, deep-fried butter, deep-fried nachos, it's incredible! I didn't want to miss my chance at this unique experience, so Jackson and I tried many different things. I even ate a fresh and colorful salad to try and balance out my meal. Near the end of the night, we were riding roller coasters, and lots of spinning rides. All the fried foods were making my stomach ill. I was very nervous walking back to the car at the end of the night because my stomach was so sick. Right before we reached our car, I sprayed some poor stranger's car with my technicolor yawn. It was quite disgusting and Jackson was really shocked. I was so embarrassed, but I felt so much better after that. 

Explanation: Technicolor yawn = vomit noun

In the example, the speaker had eaten too much foods that upset his stomach. He says he sprayed his technicolor yawn on someone's car. Which means he sprayed vomit on someone's car.

Technicolor yawn should be used as a noun and most often accompanied by a possessive adjective: my technicolor yawn; her technicolor yawn; his technicolor yawn; someone's technicolor yawn

Choose a verb to show an action: 

ex: He threw his technicolor yawn all over the street; 

She left her technicolor yawn in the toilet and forgot to flush;

The dog ate Mark's technicolor yawn before we could clean it up.

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