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

beat the wind • hit the breeze
beat the wind —(also: beat the air) continue to make futile
attempts: We are beating the wind: the foreign public is not
eager to listen to our talks however truthful they may be.
hit the breeze —(U.S. sl.) go away promptly; make off at
once: Bob Tidball was never to “hit the breeze” again. The
deadly .45 of the false friend cracked and filled the gorge with
a roar.
beaten to death • dead beaten
beaten to death —
1
. killed by beating: The magazine quoted
a report which stated that prisoners were routinely starved or
beaten to death. 2. (also: flogged to death) discussed so many
times that it is not interesting any more: No sporting event is
beaten to death more than the Sugar Bowl — it is analyzed
again and again by the commentators.
dead beaten —(also: dead beat) extremely tired; utterly ex-
hausted: When I saw him arrive in the same hostel as us, he
was dead beaten, after having traveled for over 24 hours.
beauty sleep • sleeping beauty
beauty sleep —an afternoon nap or rest taken to improve the
appearance: I remember my grandmother always took her
“beauty sleep”— heaven knows how she managed it with all
she did.
sleeping beauty —a business company which is a prime target
for takeover because it has a high profit potential: The inter-
esting thing with Zenith is that the company was a sleeping
beauty.
become history • go down in history
become history —said of a past event, etc. that has lost its
– 45 –
become history

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original impact or importance: Autocratic monarchy has be-
come history now, and republicanism has become a reality.
go down in history —said of an event that is notable or mem-
orable in history: The Northern Ireland peace agreement will
go down in history as an agreement that paved the way for
many others on our continent…