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First of all, the person fell and his body hit the ground heavily:

Fred stumbled and bit the dust. He just couldn't get up and continue the triathlon.

Or the person died:

He bit the dust.

Keep eating fast food and you'll bite the dust fast.

There is another choice but the meaning is used with an object, plan or project to mean that something ends in failure or stops working:

Bad news, boys! Our project bit the dust.

Which meaning is suitable for the following headline then? "Sub-prime fallout: One more deal bites the dust".

Many of you must have heard of the "sub-prime" problem, which is a credit problem in the real-estate sector in America. The "fallout" in this headline refers to the unpleasant results or effect of an action or event, not its other meaning of radioactive dust spread in the air after a nuclear explosion.

All in all, the headline says, "Sub-prime effect: One more deal failed."

What if you metaphorically "bite your tongue"? Then you prevent yourself from saying something that you would really like to say:

I know that my sister's boyfriend has been cheating on her. I can't do anything but bite my tongue; I don't want to make her sad.

Even though our tongue and lip are very close to each other, it does not automatically follow that "to bite one's tongue" has a close meaning to "to bite one's lip".

When you bite your lip, you are trying not to show your reaction to something, either by speaking or laughing:

The boss' new hairstyle makes him look really silly; I have to bite my lip whenever I see him.

Next is a saying that explains ingratitude: "to bite the hand that feeds you". The meaning is straight forward: to treat badly the person who is helping or has helped you:

The accusation is groundless; how can I bite the hand that feeds me?

And the last expression for today is also a saying used in informal situation: "to bite off more than you can chew" - in which you are trying to do something that is too difficult for you:

Benson admitted that he bit off more than he could chew in his effort to run the project alone.

 

Complete the sentences with the expressions explained:

1. Realising that James would not listen to her anyway, Laura … .

2.  By the time he realised that he had … it was already too late to change anything.

3. I believe that everybody noticed the drawback in the agreement but since the manager did not seem to mind it we just had to … .

4. My cat got tangled up between my legs causing me to … .

5. Unfortunately, she did not realise that she was … .

6. His plan to take a master's in social science … when a criminal charge was lodged against him.

Answers: 1. bit her tongue, 2. bitten off more than he could chew, 3. bite our lips, 4. bite the dust, 5. biting the hand that fed her, 6. bit the dust

By Parnsap Yomanage