Phrases & Expressions

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 regret something very deeply and wish that it had never happened.

• Companies that ignore climate risks today may rue the day they failed to plan ahead.
• Sign a contract without reading the small print, and you might well rue the day you did.

(British, informal) for as long as anyone can remember.

• My dad has supported the same football club since the year dot.
• Families in the village have been holding this summer festival since the year dot.

To insist on formal rules of behaviour; usually used in the negative.

• The wedding was relaxed and nobody stood on ceremony, so guests danced barefoot on the grass.
• The new director doesn't stand on ceremony; she asks everyone to call her by her first name.

To suffer alone the unpleasant results of your own actions, without help from others.

• After he refused all our advice, we decided to leave him to stew in his own juice.
• The landlord ignored every complaint, so the tenants moved out and left him to stew in his own juice.

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 expect little good from something, having been let down in similar situations before.

• After three failed reorganisations, the staff take a jaundiced view of the management's latest plan.
• Having been cheated online before, my father takes a jaundiced view of any deal that seems too good to be true.

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.

To tell someone unpleasant facts about themselves or their behaviour that they may not want to hear.

• It was painful, but my best friend told me some home truths about how selfish I had become.
• Sometimes a good manager has to tell staff some home truths about their performance, even if it upsets them.

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.