A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

boatman 
(water boatman)
bob 
(cock-eye bob)
body 
(dog’s body; keep body and soul
together)
boil 
(bring something to the boil; keep
someone on the boil)
boiler 
(blow one’s boiler; burst the
boiler)
bolt 
(shoot a bolt; shoot one’s bolt)
bomb 
(be the bomb; drop a bomb;
drop bombs; go down like a bomb;
go like a bomb; make a bomb; plas-
tic bomb)
bond 
(in bond; in bonds; on bond)
bone 
(close to the bone; in one’s bones;
make no bones about something;
make one’s bones; on one’s bones; to
the bone; to the bone of one’s back)
book 
(autograph book; autographed
book; black book; black-letter book;
blue book; bring someone to book;
close the book on something; close
the books on something; closed
book, a; desk-book; do a book; do a
book on something; hold book; in
one’s book; in someone’s books; in
the book; keep books; little black
book; make a book; make a book of
something; make a book on some-
thing; on the book; on the books;
open book, an; order book; orderly
book; pay-book; paying-in book;
prayer book; prayer book, the; proj-
ect blue book; psalm-book; speak by
the book; speak like a book; stock
book; table book; visiting book; visi-
tors’ book; word-book; write the
book on something; yellow book)
boot 
(die in one’s boots; fill one’s
boots; have the wobbly boot on; old
boot; put the boot in; quake in one’s
boots; snow boots)
boss 
(straw boss)
bother 
(one is not bothered)
bottle 
(crack a bottle; have a bottle;
have a lot of bottle; hit the bottle;
hot-water bottle; let the genie out of
the bottle; water bottle)
bottom 
(at the bottom of something;
from the bottom up; get to the bot-
tom of something; go to the bottom;
hit bottom; in the bottom of some-
thing; reach the bottom of some-
thing; reach to the bottom of
something; touch bottom)