Phrases & Expressions

To make someone formally promise to tell the truth, especially in a court of law.

• A journalist who is put on oath may be asked to reveal her sources, which raises difficult ethical questions.
• The inquiry has the power to put officials on oath and demand that they hand over documents.

To officially cancel a court's guilty verdict, usually after an appeal.

• The appeal court quashed her conviction after new DNA evidence proved she had been elsewhere that night.
• Lawyers for the three men are confident that they will have their convictions quashed next year.

To use power to stop people from expressing opinions that oppose official views.

• Human rights groups accuse the regime of using online surveillance to suppress dissent.
• Governments that suppress dissent often find that public anger grows rather than disappears.

To be consistent with other facts, figures or accounts of the same thing.

• The witness's account does not tally with the evidence from the security cameras.
• These findings tally with earlier studies suggesting that regular exercise can improve children's concentration.

The steady growth in the importance or popularity of something, which seems impossible to stop.

• The inexorable rise of online shopping has forced many small high-street shops to close.
• The inexorable rise of artificial intelligence is changing the skills that employers look for in graduates.

To formally promise or agree that you will do something.

• The landlord undertook to repair the roof before the new tenants moved in.
• By signing the contract, the company undertakes to deliver all orders within five working days.

A system that is too large or complicated to manage or use efficiently.

• Critics say the tax rules have grown into an unwieldy system that few people fully understand.
• Merging the two hospital databases created an unwieldy system that slowed doctors down.

Opinions that are very different from each other.

• Experts hold widely divergent views on whether artificial intelligence will create or destroy jobs.
• The two political parties have widely divergent views on immigration, which makes cooperation difficult.

To have a punishment or something unpleasant stopped or delayed just before it was due to happen.

• The village library won a last-minute reprieve when a local business offered to pay its running costs.
• Human rights groups celebrated when the prisoner won a last-minute reprieve the night before his execution.