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

excuse someone for something • excuse someone
from something
excuse someone for something —forgive a person for doing
smth. wrong: She begged me to excuse her for being so rude
and interrupting our walk.
excuse someone from something —set a person free from a duty
or obligation: My teacher, to my amazement, excused me from
freshman English when I turned in my first piece.
expand into something • expand upon something
expand into something —enlarge into smth. bigger: In no
time at all, the vegetable garden had expanded into a small
farm.
expand upon something —add detail to smth.; explain what
is implied in a statement, etc.: Would you please expand upon
that last remark.
expectation of life • life expectancy
expectation of life —the average number of years of life re-
maining for a person of a given age based on statistical prob-
ability: His expectation of life was substantially less than it
would have been if he had not contracted cancer.
life expectancy —the number of years an average person can
be expected to live based on statistical probability: Life ex-
pectancy in the U.S. continues a long-term upward trend.
experience in something • experience of something
experience in something —knowledge of a particular activity
as a result of having done it in the past: The president has had
no experience in traveling abroad, and should send a qualified
representative to handle the delicate cultural issues.
experience of something —knowledge of smth. a person was
involved in, especially smth. important that affects him: Even
though I’ve been back for months, my experience of traveling
in India is still very much with me.
experiment on something • experiment with
 something
experiment on something —use smth. in an experiment or
test: Many people disapprove of scientists who experiment on
animals.
experiment with something —use smth. to test the effective-
ness of new methods or ideas: Many composers are now ex-
perimenting with new forms of music.