Phrases & Expressions

To live until you are very old.

• Eating well, staying active and keeping in touch with friends can all improve your chances of living to a ripe old age.
• My great-grandmother lived to a ripe old age and was still gardening at ninety-seven.

To see only the good parts of something, especially the past, and ignore the bad parts.

• Many older people look at their youth through rose-tinted spectacles and forget how hard life really was.
• It is easy to look at your childhood through rose-tinted spectacles, but my school days were not always happy.

Forgotten or unknown because it happened such a long time ago.

• Many ancient recipes have been lost in the mists of time because they were never written down.
• Exactly who built the first bridge here has been lost in the mists of time, but local legends suggest it was the Romans.

To unfairly change the rules or conditions of something while it is already happening.

• Students complained that the university had moved the goalposts by raising entry requirements after they had applied.
• The government has been accused of moving the goalposts by changing the rules on pension payments.

To say something very quietly, often a complaint, so that other people cannot hear it.

• When the teacher gave us extra homework, several students muttered something under their breath.
• Stuck in traffic again, the taxi driver muttered a few angry words under his breath.

To always look extremely neat, tidy and well groomed.

• Our head teacher never had a hair out of place, even on the hottest days of the year.
• TV presenters never seem to have a hair out of place, thanks to their team of stylists.

To keep becoming more successful after an important change or decision.

• Moving to a smaller town was the best decision we ever made, and we have never looked back.
• After switching from law to teaching, Mehmet never looked back and is now head of his department.

Used to say that a room or other place is extremely small.

• My first student room was so small that there was no room to swing a cat.
• The kitchen looks nice in the photos, but in reality there's no room to swing a cat.

(of clothes) bought ready-made in standard sizes rather than made for one person.

• He is so tall that he can rarely buy trousers off the peg.
• She couldn't afford a tailor, so she bought a suit off the peg.

To be romantically interested in one particular person and in nobody else.

• Plenty of people asked her out at university, but she only had eyes for her childhood sweetheart.
• He has been married for forty years and still only has eyes for his wife.