Additional Business English Idioms

Here are some additional Business English Idioms which you will hear used during business meetings and in the professional workplace:

Calculated-risk:

Sometimes, we take a risk, because we hope it will be

worth it, even though we may not have a one hundred percent

chance of success

Call it a day:

Decide to stop work for the day; say it is time to stop

work for now, and, then, continue tomorrow; quit working

when everyone is tired at the end of the day.

Call it quits:

Give up; stop making an effort; stop trying; throw in the

towel; stop what you are trying to do.

Call-off the meeting:

Cancel or postpone

Call the shots:

Give the orders; be in command; be the one in control

who decides; tells others what to do.

Candid opinion:

Frank, open honest expression of opinion

Captive audience:

A group of people who must listen to someone speaking

whether they wish to or not

Case of the jitters:

Shaking with fear before an event; feeling jumpy and

anxious prior to performing; afraid and feeling nervous

before speaking to an audience

Casual dress:

Informal dress such as sports shirt and trousers rather

than black suit and tie.

Catch on quickly:

Learn fast; get the hang of things

Catch up on your work:

When you fall behind in your work schedule or load, you

need to make an extra effort to catch up on your work

Catching on quickly:

Learning fast and getting the idea quickly

Cautious optimism:

Be optimistic but take care not to be too hopeful and expect

too much.

Cave in under pressure:

Just as a hollow below the ground may collapse under

pressure, so a person may be said to give in to political,

social or peer pressure and go against his original intentions.

Cease and desist:

Stop what you are doing and don’t do it again.

Chalk up to experience:

Learning from your mistakes, as though you were writing

them down in chalk on a blackboard so you don’t forget

Chance of a lifetime:

The best opportunity you will ever get as long as you

live.

Charge your batteries:

To restore your energy, similar to charging your battery;

to take a rest and have some recreation to refresh your

self and regain power; to take some time off to regenerate

your strength; to relax and do something pleasurable

to restore your forces.

Chit-chat:

Small-talk; silly chatter.

Clinch the deal:

Clearly finalize a business agreement; agreeing on final

terms as the deciding factor; as though by a shake of the

hand.

Close to your chest:

Just as a poker player keeps his cards close to his chest

so no one will know what cards he is holding, so we can

say a person is ‘holding his cards close to his chest’ when

he does not want people to know what he is thinking or

feeling or doing.

Cloud the issue:

Make a topic or subject unclear by introducing confusing

input.

Come up in the world:

Improve your financial and social status

Confusing the issue:

Introducing something irrelevant into the discussion that

leads off topic.

Cut me in on the deal:

Give me a share; let me share in the profits

Cut to the chase:

Don’t explain the development of the whole story just cut

to the end; leave out the introductory information, and

come straight to the point; don’t bother leading up to the

point; come to the climax directly leaving out the details

and tell the final result.

Dead-tired:

So tired that you almost feel dead; so tired that you

hardly have the energy to even move.

Debatable point:

An uncertain; questionable; doubtful; dubious; undecided;

arguable fact or point-of-view

Desperate measures:

Undertake strong, forceful actions to prevent unwanted

events from happening.

Devil’s advocate:

Someone who tests an argument just by saying the opposite,

to see if it holds water

Dicker about the price:

Bargain, argue and haggle about the price

Digging your own grave:

Setting up the situation for your own destruction

Dirty deal:

An unfair transaction in which someone is cheated or

suffers an unfair advantage

Do the legwork:

Perform the preparatory work in order to set things up for

a venture or event

Drum-up support:

Go out and talk to people or parties to arouse and enlist

their support.

Dutch treat:

Share the cost equally; one pays half and so does the

other

Dynamo of energy:

A person who generates a lot of energy to motivate others

and get the job done