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

key man • key-holder
key man —a person who plays a leading or important role
in smth.: One of the key men in this new method of assessing
needs and opportunities is the local prefect.
key-holder —a person who keeps the keys of a workshop,
factory, etc.: Workmen were waiting outside ready to begin
work for the day. The key-holder had not arrived.
kick against something • kick something
kick against something —protest about or oppose smth.:
They knew life … and it was as useless to kick against the
laws of society as to interfere with the laws of nature. Cf.: kick
against the pricks — protest about or oppose smth. without success
(harming oneself by doing so): Somewhere in our teens or twen-
ties most of us shrug and decide not to “kick against the
pricks.”
kick something —strike smth. with the foot: Actually, to push
didn’t really do it, you kind of had to kick the door to really
get it to pop open.
kick one’s heels • kick up one’s heels
kick one’s heels —(coll.) have nothing to do, especially while
being kept waiting (also: cool one’s heels): I had to kick my
heels for nearly two hours before I could see the boss.
kick up one’s heels —(coll.) cast off one’s inhibitions and have
a good time: I took two weeks for my holidays and had a
pleasant time kicking up my heels around the beaches of
Majorca.
kill an elephant • shoot the bull
kill an elephant—do smth. to excess; overdo things: Tagua
palm is also called natural ivory. We found tagua all over the
place and you don’t have to kill an elephant for it!
Note:
The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the
phrase kill the rabbit—
1
. (dated euph.) get a positive test result
from an old-fashioned pregnancy test: Back in my mom’s day
… there was “the rabbit test.” If a woman was pregnant, it
was said that she “killed the rabbit.” 2. (Aviation) turn down
the intensity of the approach lights: If you ever hear “kill the
rabbit” while listening to air traffic control, the pilot is asking
the controller to turn off the strobe lights.
shoot the bull —(U.S. sl.) engage in idle chat: It was raining,
so everybody spent the day indoors drinking beer and shooting
the bull.