Gut punch?
Any attack that is strong and impactful can be likened to a gut punch.
Emotional intelligence?
Emotional intelligence refers to the intelligence to understand and manage emotions, your own emotions and those of others.
Full of holes?
A story that is full of holes is full of flaws and therefore not believable.
Dirty work?
Dirty work often refers to a task that is physically taxing and mentally boring.
Ivory Tower?
The Ivory Tower is synonymous with schools and academies, where people deal with intellectual work rather than working hard just to be able to pay the bills in the real world.
Off base?
A person who is off base is someone who, like the baseball playing straying too far from base, is wrong in the head.
Blow up in your face?
If you do something and it blows up in your face, you have failed miserably.
Straight shooting advice?
Straight shooting means the speaker is forthright and frank.
Toe to toe?
That’s what “toe-to-toe” means, a direct fight or confrontation.
Grunt work
Grunt, you see, is the short, low sound we make from the throat, usually when we are doing heavy physical work or when we are unhappy.
Double down, no backing off
When someone doubles down on a certain project, he or she is redoubling their effort in pursuit of a certain risky object or goal.
Priming the pump?
US President Donald again invited ridicule when he told The Economist that he invented the phrase “prime the pump”.
Head trip?
A head trip is, in short, a journey that happens in the head.
What’s whataboutism?
Whataboutism is a retorting tactic turned into an art form or, seriously, an ideology.
Double-edged sword?
A double-edged sword, as a sister saying goes, that cuts both ways.