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

serial 
(television serial)
series 
(television series)
service 
(be at someone’s service; be in
someone’s service; be of service to
someone; come into service; give
someone lip service; go into service;
go into the service; go out of service;
in service; in the service; man of
service; quit the service; take service;
take the service; time service)
set 
(be set on doing something; be set
to do something; jet set; twin set;
two-piece set)
shade 
(be in the shade; cast a shade
over something; cast something into
the shade; eye-shade)
shadow 
(cast a long shadow over some-
thing; cast a shadow over something;
eye shadow)
shake 
(give someone a fair shake; give
someone a shake; give someone the
shake)
shake-down 
(give someone a shake-
down)
shake-up 
(give someone a shake-up)
shame 
(bring shame on someone; put
someone to shame)
shape 
(bent out of shape; get some-
thing into shape; give shape to some-
thing; in no shape; not in shape; out
of shape; take shape; take the shape)
shark 
(one wouldn’t shout if a shark bit
him; swim with the sharks)
shave 
(clean shave; close shave; closely
shaven)
sheep 
(black sheep; count sheep; ride
on the sheep’s back; separate the
sheep from the goats; wolf in sheep’s
clothing)
sheet 
(blank sheet; fly-sheet; white as a
sheet)
shelf 
(laid on the shelf; left on the
shelf; off the shelf; on the shelf )
shell 
(be hardly out of the shell; come
out of one’s shell)
shilling 
(cut someone off with a
shilling; cut someone off without a
shilling; long shillings)