split hairs – make trivial, unnecessary distinctions. 吹毛求疵。

注解:字面理解“分开头发”。据说人的头上有十万根头发,要把每根头发都分开那可真是吹毛求疵了。

例句:The lawyers were splitting hairs over the wording in the contract.

那些律师在合同上的用词上吹毛求疵。

660. split up – separate. 分开

注解:split v.把…分开。split up 在口语中常指男女双方感情出现问题后分开。

例句:Although they have been married for over 25 years, the couple decided to split up because they could no longer get along.

虽然他们已经结婚了25年,他们还是因为合不来决定分开。

661. square meal – a proper meal. 饱餐,美餐

注解:square除了正方形也有正式的意思。字面理解“正式的一顿饭”,指的是不在凑合地吃饭,而是吃一顿正餐。

例句:After weeks of scraping by, I am finally having a square meal.

吃了几个星期的泡面,我终于能美餐一顿了。

662. spruce up – clean, redecorate. 打扮干净漂亮

注解:spruce v.打扮整齐,打扮干净。

例句:We wanted to make our home look good for the holiday party. We spent days sprucing it up.

我们想把家里为聚会装扮一下,为此我们折腾了好几天。

663. square one – in the beginning. 回到原点

注解:square作为动词有“使…平方”,1的平方还是1,指没有任何变化,所以square one 是固定搭配“原点”。口语常作go back to square one (回到原点),也常与介词at 连用,begin at square one (从原点开始)。

例句:Now that the computer had lost all the information in the report, we will have to begin at square one.

电脑上关于报道的信息都丢了,我们又回到初始地了。

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664. stab someone in the back – betray someone. 背叛

注解:stab是“刺”。字面理解“此某人的后背”,就是在某人后被捅刀子,表示的就是“暗算”的意思。

例句:We were always so friendly in the office. I cannot believe that he stabbed me in the back and tried to have me fired.

我们在办公室关系一直很好,我简直不敢相信他背叛了我,想让我被开除。

665. star crossed lovers – unlucky lovers. 命途多舛的爱人

注解:人们看见这话的第一感觉可能是牛郎织女,其实不然。这句话来源于莎士比亚的罗密欧与朱丽叶,这里的cross并不是喜鹊桥梁那种浪漫的相会,而且double-cross那样背叛的意思,这里是说背叛星辰,违背天意的意思。 指罗密欧与朱丽叶那样除了两人相爱以外万物都反对的爱情。

例句:The Star Wars prequels told the story of a pair of star crossed lovers, but is now the go-to example of bad romance in film.

星球大战前传电影讲述了一段不幸的爱情故事,但现在却是垃圾爱情片的反面教材。

666. stand on one’s own two feet – be independent. 独立的

注解:字面理解“依靠自己的两只脚站立”,形容靠自己的双脚站立,不依靠他人。

例句:Once he graduated from college, he was able to get a job and an apartment and he was able to stand on his own two feet.

他从大学毕业以后马上就找到了工作租了房子,自食其力。

667. stand someone up – fail to keep an appointment or date. 放鸽子

注解:字面理解“让某人站着”。两个人本来说好了见面,但是其中一人因故不来了,又没有事先通知。让另外一个人站着等,就是口语中常说的“放了某人的鸽子”。

例句:They decided to meet at 6:00. She waited for him for an hour and then realized that he stood her up.

他们约在6点见面。她等了一个小时后发觉她被放鸽子了。

668. stand up guy – man of good character. 好汉,真男人,真汉子

注解:直译为“站直的男人”,就是说顶天立地的汉子,指品德过人。

例句:He’s a stand up guy, you can trust him with your life.

他是个顶天立地的汉子,你可以完全相信他。