Searching 1,789 entries, their variants, meanings, and origins
“trouble”
Showing 1–24 of 56 matches
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A storm is brewing
Meaning Says that trouble, conflict or a crisis is quietly developing and will probably break out soon. Applied to quarrels, politics, markets or any gathering tension, and often met in other tenses, as in a storm…
Also known as a storm was brewing · a tempest is brewing · there's a storm brewing · trouble is brewing
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A recipe for disaster
Meaning … elements together, the result is guaranteed to be trouble rather than anything desirable. Works as a noun predicate or with 'be'; conversational and journalistic, bordering on cliché in news writing. Regional…
Also known as a recipe for success (opposite) · a recipe for trouble · be a recipe for disaster
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In hot water
Meaning In trouble or a difficult situation, often due to one's own actions, facing consequences with a sense of being scalded or trapped. It evokes discomfort.
Also known as In the hot water
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In deep water
Meaning In serious trouble or difficulty, typically a situation that has grown beyond what one can easily handle or escape; often used in progressive constructions such as 'the bank is in deep water over the loans…
Also known as get into deep water · in deep waters · into deep water · still in deep water
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Nip it in the bud
Meaning To stop something early before it grows or worsens, cutting off trouble at its source with swift, decisive action.
Also known as In the bud · Nip the bud
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Dinna fash yourself
Meaning Do not worry or trouble yourself, and do not make unnecessary effort over the matter. Regional, friendly and usually reassuring. 'Dinna' is Scots, not merely an eye-dialect spelling of standard English…
Also known as Dinna fash · Do not fash yourself
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Let sleeping dogs lie
Meaning To avoid stirring up trouble or revisiting a settled issue, choosing peace over provocation even if it means leaving things unresolved. It suggests letting dormant problems rest.
Also known as Let dogs lie
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Red flag
Meaning … sign that a person, offer, or situation may turn out to be trouble, as when a behaviour signals that a potential partner or deal is best avoided. Also a verb meaning to identify or draw attention to a…
Also known as raise a red flag · red flag emoji used as shorthand · red flags · red-flag (verb)
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Hot potato
Meaning … nobody wants to handle, because touching it brings blame, trouble or political damage; often found as 'a political hot potato'. The older simile 'drop someone or something like a hot potato' means to abandon…
Also known as a political hot potato · drop it like a hot potato · hot-potato issue · pass along the hot potato
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Hunky-dory
Meaning Fine, satisfactory, or proceeding without trouble. Current, light-hearted, and slightly old-fashioned Regional use: United States.
Also known as hunkey dora · hunkey dorey · hunkey dory · hunky dory
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Raise Cain
Meaning To make a furious commotion - riotous trouble-making, violent protest, or a wild row. It belongs to the family of raising the Devil, raise hell, and raise the roof, and it promises noise rather than stealth…
Also known as raise the Devil · raised Cain · raising Cain
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In the soup
Meaning In a messy trouble or fix, deep.
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Making waves
Meaning To cause a disturbance, stir up trouble, or attract notice by disrupting a settled state of affairs, whether among colleagues, in an industry, or in public life. Usually mildly critical of troublemakers…
Also known as don't make waves · made waves
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Off the hook
Meaning Freed from responsibility, trouble, or obligation, escaping a sticky situation with relief or luck. It carries a tone of liberation or sly evasion, used for dodging blame, chores, or peril, blending triumph…
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Queer street
Meaning A difficult or precarious situation, especially financial trouble. The expression is dated and may be misunderstood because queer now has prominent identity-related meanings.
Also known as Down Queer Street · In Queer Street
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Chain reaction
Meaning … where it is the standard figure for self-propagating trouble. Neutral in science, ominous in finance and politics - it implies the process, once started, will not stop on its own; near-neighbours domino…
Also known as chain reactions · set off a chain reaction · trigger a chain reaction
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Kick up a fuss
Meaning … drawing attention to a grievance with exaggerated reaction. It suggests stirring trouble like dust kicked into the air-visible, disruptive, and hard to ignore-often with a tone of annoyance or defiance…
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Hang out to dry
Meaning To abandon someone to face trouble, criticism or punishment alone, especially after they had good reason to expect backing, often with blame shifted onto them in the process. Common in political, corporate…
Also known as be hung out to dry · hang someone out to dry · leave someone out to dry · left hanging out to dry
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Out of the woods
Meaning … after a risky period, as with illness, financial trouble or a fragile project. Almost always used in the negative - 'not out of the woods yet' - to warn that recovery is incomplete; British English commonly…
Also known as not out of the woods yet · not yet out of the woods · out of the wood (British) · we're not out of the woods
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The devil to pay
Meaning Serious trouble or unpleasant consequences looming, usually as the price of something already done or left undone. It typically appears with there'll be or there was: if the boss finds out, there will be the…
Also known as hell to pay · the devil and all to pay · the devil to pay and no pitch hot
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Peaches and cream
Meaning Describes something idyllically pleasant, easy, or trouble-free, most often in assertions like 'everything is peaches and cream' and frequently in negated form to point out hardship. Also describes a fair…
Also known as everything is peaches and cream · life is just peaches and cream · not all peaches and cream · peaches-and-cream (compound modifier)
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Twist in the wind
Meaning To be left to face trouble, scrutiny or criticism alone, without support or rescue, usually abandoned by the very people who put you in the position; also, to be kept waiting in uncertainty for an…
Also known as left to twist in the wind · left twisting in the wind · twist slowly in the wind · twisting in the wind
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Don't rock the boat
Meaning To avoid stirring trouble or change, keeping things steady.
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In the nick of time
Meaning … or acting just before it's too late, at the critical last moment when delay would mean failure or disaster. It conveys urgency and relief, suggesting a narrow escape from trouble, often with a dramatic flair…
Also known as In the nick · Nick of time