English Idioms: Strapped for cash

English Idioms About “Time”
Idiom: Ahead of one’s time
Meaning: In advance of concurrent commonly accepted ideas; showing characteristics of changes yet to be; present in one’s work before later advances in the field.
Example: With his new scientific discoveries, he was ahead of his time.

English Idioms About “General”
Idiom: Jam on the brakes
Meaning: To press the brakes suddenly and in a hard way.
Example: I had to jam on the brakes because a kid suddenly appeared from nowhere and crossed the road.

English Idioms About “Science”
Idiom: The dismal science
Meaning: The phrase the dismal science refers to the discipline of economics. The term drew a contrast with the phrase gay science which refers to song and verse writing the phrase the dismal science first occurs in Thomas Carlyle’s 1849 tract called Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question, in which he argued in favor of reintroducing slavery in order to regulate the labor market in the West Indies: Not a “gay science,” I should say, like some we have heard of; no, a dreary, desolate and, indeed, quite abject and distressing one; what we might call, by way of eminence, the dismal science. Carlyle, Thomas (1849). “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question”, Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. XL., p. 672.
Example: He is interested in history and the dismal science.

English Idioms About “Sport”
Idiom: Beat someone at their own game
Meaning: The phrase beat someone at his or her own game means to outdo someone using their own methods, tactics or specialty.
Example: I think we are able to beat our competitors at their own game.

English Idioms About “Work”
Idiom: Do the dirty work
Meaning: The phrase do the dirty work means to do the disagreeable, illegal or dishonest things.
Example: He always sends his assistant to do his dirty work rather than doing it himself.

English Idioms About “Parts of the body”
Idiom: Hit the nail on the head
Meaning: Said to describe exactly a situation or a problem.
Example: I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that the Smiths lack a sense of cooperation in their family.