2x4, 4x4, 2x6, 2x8, 2x10 (5x10 in Mexico)
Dog and pony show
Ballpark number, Ballpark figure
Fudge factor
A piece of cake, duck soup, cake walk, falling off a log
Have a lot on plate
Work my (one's) tail/ass off
Bologna / Boloney
Stop pulling my tail/chain
My hunch
Gut feeling
Gridlock
Jack of all trades, panacea
Putting the cart ahead of the horse
Happy as a pig in slop/sh**t
Allen wrench, crescent wrench, Phillips screw, slot screw, ...
Holy grail
The cats meow
The best thing since sliced bread
On the fritz
Post-mortem
Oxymoron, crazy wisdom, living dead, guest host
Speaking of the devil
Silver bullet
Starting from square one
You can’t polish a turd
The whole nine yards
Quid pro quo
Catch 22
Fender bender
Running on fumes
Hockey stick sales / expenditure
There's more than one way to skin a cat
Go pound sand
Red eye flight
Talk his/her ear off
Under the weather
Wiggle room
Don't be a gunhole
Loophole
Big cheese, head honcho, top dog, big enchilada, big wig,
The cat is on the table
Sidekick, page boy, Sancho Panza (for Don Quijote), Robin (for Batman)
Pan out
Fall off the wagon
Walking on eggshells (thin ice) (thin line)
Like a chicken with its head (cut) off
Don’t beat the dead horse
Herding cats
The million-dollar question
Punch line
X-gate: Booger-gate, Watergate, Russia-gate
Red herring
Growler, keg, stubby, steinie, forty, nip, throwdown, pony, cuartitos, bomber, grenade, shot, flask, three two,
Barbershop quartet
Those who stay will be champions (do you know Bo Schembechler)
Small potatoes, big shots
Paving the cow path
A clean slate
Per diem
Persona
Persona non grata, black list
Mea culpa
Incommunicado
Avant-garde, leading-edge,
It is my forte to ...
Double dip
Hodgepodge
Dirt cheap
POTUS, FLOTUS, SCOTUS, tbd, nvm, ttyl, brb, lol, 2f4u, DYK, btw, ...
Trick play, Flea flicker
Leeway
The horse is dead - moving on
The 11th hour
On the same page, on the same boat
Knocking on wood
Gag order
Silver lining
Utility player, Swiss army knife,
Things went south. Go south.
Seven course meal, from soup to nuts
Have/get/put duck in a row
Lip service, talk is cheap, money talks, bull shit walks, token agreement, sweet talk
Get the monkey off the back
Achilles’ heel
Get the short end of the stick
Fire sale
Ad hoc, post hoc,
Tragedy of the commons
Acts of God
Get the feet wet
Yanking your chain, rattling your cage
Arm’s length
Come to a head
Slippery slope
Toe-to-toe
Heyday
Hit the ground running
Lazy Susan
A foregone conclusion
Brownie point
Poster boy
Keep fingers crossed
Red neck
Everything is on the table
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.
Aha moment
Nitpicking
Showboat, grandstanding
White knight
White elephant
Unsung hero
On the mend, mend the fence
Voluntold
Chopped liver
Smoking gun
The benefit of doubt
Heads up
He said, she said
Cut me/him/her some slack
Hindsight is 2020
Walk the walk and talk the talk
Smooth around the edges, rough around the edges
John Hancock
Armchair quarterback, Monday morning quarterback
Peeling back the onion
Burn one’s bridges (burn my/his/her bridges)
Shotgun approach
Double edged sword
Beyond my pay grade
Let me take a stab at it
Hot potato
Urban legends
Stump speech
Water under the bridge
Over my dead body
Bet the farm
Hat tip, tip my hat
Pretty penny
Moonlighting, moonshine,
Pork barrel
Works his/her tails off
Hand-waving
Icing on the cake, final punch,
Throw in the towel
Go/went without a hitch
Kick (someone) to the curb
Bits and pieces of information
Play it by ear
Put out a few fires
Call in one’s chits, call in one’s markers
On the top of one’s head
The new kid on the block
Diamond in the rough
Point-blank
Pull the rug from under
Bona fide
As many sticks in the fire, too many sticks in the fire
Irons in the fire, too many irons in the fire
Getting into the weeds
Pencil in
Poison pill
Drawing the long straw, draw the long straw, draw the short straw, …
Draw a long bow
Biggest bang of the buck
When the rubber hits/meets the road
Bullet proof
Light in the end of the tunnel
Have a leg up
Double over
Pulling punches, pulling one’s punches
The first swing
Witch hunt
Under the skin
Put their money where their mouth is
My neck of woods
Under the gun
Walk a tightrope
Rain check
Overkill, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut, pulling dead chickens using a Cadillac,
Behind the eight ball
Have a beef with someone/something
Piggy back
Doggie bag
Crown jewel
Double back
Right off the bat
Bottomline
Short timer
Pull the plug
Smell blood in water
Give em hell, give it hell
Red tape
Butterfingers
Pecking order
Sweat bullets
Get/start/set the ball rolling
The buck stops here
Government is not an exact science; politics is not an exact science;
If I am in your shoe, big shoes to fill, filling someone’s shoes
The tables have turned
Darth Varder, Yoda, Boba Fett, Princess Leia, Weeteef, C3PO, Droid (R2-D2) (C-3PO), Lightlaser, Yoda, Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Kylo Ren, Stormtrooper, ...
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
On detail
The devil is in the detail
Fanned out
Step up to the plate
Too many cooks in the kitchen
Too many chiefs, not enough Indians; too many generals, not enough soldiers
Out of whack
Copycat
Nickel and dime, itty-bitty,
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe
Over the line
On the block (auction)
Belly of the beast
Over the hill
Speaking to the choir, preaching to the choir
Y’All
Spinning the wheel
Under one’s belt
Pull out all the stops
Hell to pay
Jump ship
Half-assed (approach)
High-wire act
Copetitor, competimate, coopetition
Guinea pig
Read between the lines
Follow the money
Loose cannon
Morbing off
Jumps gun
Knuckle head, pin head,
Scheme of things
Quick and dirty
Go bananas
Move the needle
In time of change learners inherit the earth.
Nip in the bud.
Do not know the answer on the top of my head
Self-licking ice cream cone
G.I. (military)
Take the bullet
Down the rabbit hole
Eye candy
Pony up
Pink slip
Lipstick on a pig
Tip of the spear
Ground zero
Have work cut out for
Gravity of situation
Glide path
On the line
Golden handshake
Drinking from the fire hose (or hydrant)
Run the table
Self-inflicted wound
Thread the needle, toe the line
One and done
Squeaking wheel gets oil
Button up
Bell cow
In the crosshair
Grapevine communication
Boat anchor
Nitty-gritty
Tip-top shape
Can of worms
There’s a will, there’s a way
Pick your brain
My two-cents
Crapshoot
Double dipping (see this video)
Boilerplate text
Fifth wheel and slide out
Pulling the teeth
Carpe diem
Tight lip
Skelton in the closet
Throw (someone) under the bus
Easy to say than done
MacGyver approach
Pie in the sky
Pulling a Ferris Bueller/Playing Hookey
The cream of the crop
Could you grease the skid for us on …
French drain, Belgium block, Chicago screw, Japanese joint,
Zero sum game
To buy into (the idea)
Golden handcuffs, golden parachute
See eye to eye
Grab the bull by its horns
W00t
Zerk fitting
Prima donna (arrogant)
On the wrong side of the fence
The bases are loaded
Hearing no news is good news
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Dodge the bullet
Writing on the wall
Picket line
bone head
A rising tide lifts all boats
Go over like a lead balloon, lead zeppelin
False dichotomy, false dilemma
Kryptonite - superman’s weakness
The genie is out of the bottle
Smoking mirrors
Due diligence
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Finger in the dike, finger in the dam
If you build it, they will come. -- Field of Dreams
born on third base and thinks he hit a triple