ESL Podcast 370 - Describing a Bad Experience
to rope (one/someone) into - to lure or to convince someone into doing something
The car salesman roped me into buying the old used car after he told me that the car had previously been owned by a famous actor.
lame - boring; unsatisfactory; not interesting
The party was lame because there was no music, there was no food, and only two people showed up.
the pits - very bad; terrible; horrible
The concert was the pits because the lead singer had a horrible voice.
amateur hour - an expression used when a performance is so bad that it seems like average, everyday people are performing instead of professional performers
All three of the comedians' performances were so bad tonight that you would have thought that it was amateur hour.
experimental - to try something new; based on an untested or untried idea
She is going to undergo an experimental treatment to try and rid her body of cancer.
was (one/someone) wrong - an expression used when a person admits that he/she made an error in judgment or is mistaken about something
I thought it was going to snow today, so I wore my heavy jacket to work. It never snowed, and the temperature reached 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Was I wrong about the weather!
if you can call it that - an expression used to describe something negatively, indicating that it does not meet a standard
The cake, if you can call it that, was as hard as a rock and tasted like cardboard.
atrocious - very low quality; extremely bad or unpleasant
The house looked atrocious because it had not been painted in 25 years.
to get hours of (one's) life back - an expression used when a person wants to describe how useless or pointless some activity he/she just participated in was
I just spent half of a day with my wife shopping for dresses. I wish I could get those hours of my life back!
to leave a bad taste in (one's) mouth - an expression used when one has just had a negative experience and continues to think about or remember it
Gambling away $500 in Las Vegas has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
to put this whole experience behind me - an expression used when a person has just had a negative experience, and he/she wants to forget that the experience ever happened
On the way to my vacation in Florida yesterday, my wallet was stolen, my luggage fell off of the top of my car, and I had a flat tire. When I get home, I am going to put this whole experience behind me!
open-mic - an event at a bar, coffee shop, or other public meeting place where the public is invited to perform music, read poetry, etc. in front of a crowd
Joey had always wanted to play his guitar in front of an audience, so he went to open-mic night at the local bar to show off his skills.
a wild horse couldn't drag (one) - an expression meaning that there isn't any chance that one would do something that one is being asked to do
Maria, would you like to go to the zoo and look at the snakes with me?
I hate snakes! A wild horse couldn't drag me to the zoo to look at them!
to chalk it up to - to be the reason for; to credit
Tam doesn't eat meat anymore. I chock it up to the influence of his new girlfriend who is a vegetarian.
temporary insanity - temporarily crazy; behaving strangely for a short or limited time
It was temporary insanity that made me jump up and down and yell loudly when I saw my favorite band at the concert.