Hello and welcome to Ethan’s English Cafe.com’s newest fantastic phrase. Last time we looked at idioms of the belly and stomach and today we move up farther to the chest. We’ll be looking at four idioms that are commonly used in today’s society and learning what they mean. The four we will look at today are ‘To get something off of one’s chest’, ‘Put hair on your chest’, ‘playing your cards close to your chest’ and ‘beat your chest about’ something.

Before we start though, I have to get something off my chest, the translations for everything on the page are done by Vera Li, also known as Zhen KaiXin in the QQ group and we should all say thank you to her for her hard work! I don’t even pay her, so she deserves our great thanks! To get something off your chest means to confess to something you really want to say. I can be used to admit your past mistakes “I have to get this off my chest, I was the one who broke the glass, sorry.” or it can be used to make a personal complaint to someone like “I have to get it off my chest, you’re hair looks terrible.”. You can also use it to try to convince someone to be honest about something, for example “You’ll feel better once you get it off your chest.”

Once you get something off your chest, there will be lots of room for hair! If something puts hair on your chest it means it makes you a stronger person or to have more energy. Generally this is used for men only as females don’t usually want hair on their chest. It’s often said that Whiskey puts hair on your chest because it is a drink that only adults should be using. In fact this is most often used for alcohol, older men will often say “Here, drink this, it will put hair on your chest!” to younger men when giving them a strong drink.

If you do get hair on your chest, you can hide it by playing your cards close to your chest.To play your cards close to your chest comes from playing cards, which makes sense. It means to not let other people know or see what cards you have, in regular daily life it means to not let other people know what your plans are. If you ask me to throw you a birthday party and I dont’ tell you anything about my plans you can say “I asked him to throw a party but he wont tell me what he has planned! He’s playing his cards very close to his chest!”

If you manage to play your cards close to your chest and no one finds out your plans till later, don’t go beating your chest about it, it’s not polite. To beat one’s chest means to brag and boast about what you have done. If your friend beats you at basketball and starts to brag to others you can say “Don’t go beating your chest about it, I’ll win the next time anyway.”

Just to get this off of my chest, whiskey doesn’t really put hair on your chest, it’s just an old myth. But if you play your cards close to your chest, maybe you can convince your friends it does! Just don’t go beating your chest about it if they believe you or they might get angry!

Four simple idioms of the chest, hope you have learned a little something here and found it at least a little interesting. This has been Ethan Strauss reading for Ethan’s English Cafe.com. I hope to see you next time and if you see Vera Li (Zheng KaiXin) in the QQ group, tell her thanks for her hard work!

insects