Phrases & Expressions

To promise firmly and seriously that you will do something, often after something bad has happened.

• After losing the final, the team captain vowed to come back stronger next season.
• The victim's family vowed to keep campaigning until the dangerous road junction was made safe.

To make a long, determined effort to stop or get rid of something harmful.

• After years of waging war on weeds with chemicals, many farmers are now turning to natural methods.
• Our school has waged war on plastic waste, banning bottled drinks and installing free water refill stations in every corridor.

The loud, howling warning sounds of emergency vehicles on their way to an incident.

• Drivers should pull over as soon as they hear wailing sirens coming up behind them.
• Within minutes, the street was filled with wailing sirens as fire engines rushed to the scene.

A nation whose land, buildings and daily life have been ruined by years of armed conflict.

• Rebuilding schools and hospitals in a war-torn country can take decades and requires huge international support.
• Thousands of families have fled their war-torn country in search of safety and work abroad.

To make a plan, law or statement weaker or less extreme, often to make it more acceptable.

• After complaints from students, the university watered down its strict new attendance rules.
• Under pressure from industry, the government watered down its plans to ban single-use plastics.

To find and remove people or things that are unwanted or not good enough.

• Good researchers learn to weed out unreliable sources before they start writing.
• Some of the product reviews were clearly fake, so the website's moderators weeded them out within hours.

To contribute your opinion or information to a discussion that is already happening.

• Several experts weighed in with their views on the new education policy.
• My brother always weighs in with his opinion, even when nobody has asked for it.

To make you worry about something continuously.

• If something is weighing on your mind, talking to a friend or a counsellor can really help.
• Worries about money can weigh on students' minds and make it harder for them to concentrate.

A serious and important matter that needs careful thought.

• The conference will address weighty issues such as climate change and global inequality.
• Members of the debating club enjoy discussing weighty issues such as the ethics of genetic engineering.

Used to ask what is worrying or annoying someone who seems upset.

• Tom has hardly said a word all day. What's eating him, do you think?
• You've been in a bad mood since lunch. What's eating you?