Idiom

- To speak directly to the point, without consideration for tact.
Example: Don't hide behind the mask of manners, call a spade a spade.

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- To be in charge; to take the lead.
Example: I'm leaving for a seminar next week, Leslie; you'll be the one to call the shots!

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- To sell something before its value declines.
Example: The mining industry is getting heavy resistance from environmentalists and from the new anti-mining act, so cash in your chips now before it gets worse.

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- To catch someone in the act of doing something unlawful or not right.
Example: Gary was caught red-handed while shoplifting for a pack of cigarette at the corner store.

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- People having nothing in common; extremely different people.
Example: Mike and Ella, though chalk and cheese, managed to be best of friends.

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- To divert quickly the subject of discussion or the manner of talking about it.
Example: Laura was talking about what Susan did at the party when she changed the tune the moment she saw Susan approaching their group.

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- To narrowly escape an accident or major predicament.
Example: Kimberly cheated death after a horrifying sea mishap.

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- Something regarded as small in value.
Example: That amount of money is mere chicken feed for Bill Gates.

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- Something you don't know; something you cannot comprehend; something that puzzles you.
Example: I was not around when that thing happened. It is a closed book to me.

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- Ecstatic feeling; extreme happiness.
Example: Whenever I see that hunk, I feel like I'm in cloud nine!

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