Language Café

To say or do something that offends, upsets or embarrasses oneself and someone else. 说错话，（无意中）冒犯他人

Satisfying only one's immediate needs because of lack of money for future plans and investments.

Definition: To say something as someone was about to say the exact same thing.

Definition: A self-evident decision that does not require much thought.No-Brainer可不是没头脑，而是明智、显而易见想都不用想的做法，也是不假思索就能想到的好主意。Origin: 1950s US cartoons used the phrase to refer to something that is very easily perceivable.

Meaning: The poor area of a city or town.Origin: Based on the idea that a poor lower class area is often divided from the rest of a town by railroad tracks.

Meaning: A feeling of having already experienced the present situation.Origin: The expression is derived from the French, meaning "already seen." When it occurs, it seems to spark our memory of a place we have already been, a person we have already seen, or an act we have already done.

Definition: Implying that a (usually) negative event is easily predictable based on the current situation.Etymology: From the handwriting on the wall that was witnessed at a banquet hosted by King Belshazzar. As those at the feast profaned and drunk from the sacred vessels pillaged from the Jerusalem Temple, a disembodied hand appeared and wrote on the palace wall the words, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." The visionary Daniel was summoned and interpreted this message as the imminent end for the Babylonian kingdom. That night, Belshazzar was killed and the Persians sacked the capital city.

【Definition】: 1. To swindle someone, or deceive someone out of money,2. To best someone or defeat them in a contest. 【Origin】: There was already an expression to be "cleaned out," meaning the same thing. When dry cleaners were popularized, they replaced someone being "cleaned out" with them having been "taken to the cleaners." Making sure all their pockets are empty of cash / clean them out? [possible].

【Definition】: 1. An advance warning of something.  2. Showing alertness or perceptiveness. 【Origin】: According to a theory, the expression 'heads up' was used in the 19th century to mean 'straighten up' or 'keep your head up'. Some believe that the modern use of the expression comes from the 'heads-up display screen' that gives pilots vital information about their aircraft.

[Definition]: to desperately try to solve a problem or remediate a situation using any possible solution however small the hopes of success.[Origin]: The idiom originated with Thomas More's Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation (1534). It indicates desperation. A drowning man will clutch/grab at anything, even at straws (dry grass) in an attempt to save himself.