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

bike 
(get off one’s bike; get on one’s
bike; on your bike)
bill 
(foot the bill; long bill; top the
bill)
bird 
(black bird; blue bird; dead bird;
early bird; get the bird; give someone
the bird; have a bird; king bird; king
of birds; king’s bird; little bird told
me, a)
birth 
(at a birth; at birth; at the birth;
natural birth)
bit 
(do a bit; do one’s bit; for a bit; for
quite a bit; in a bit; in bits; not a
bit; two bits; two-bit)
bite 
(flea bite; flea-bitten; have a bite;
have bite)
black 
(be written in black and white;
in black; in the black; ivory black;
put the black on someone; put up a
black; see something in black and
white; yellow black)
blanket 
(dry blanket; pigs in a blanket;
wet blanket)
blaze 
(hotter than blazes)
blind 
(be blind to something)
blindfolded 
(do something blind-
folded)
block 
(do one’s block; do the block; off
one’s block; off the blocks; on the
block; on the blocks; on the chop-
ping block)
blood 
(bad blood; be in someone’s
blood; fresh blood; in cold blood;
make someone’s blood boil; make
someone’s blood freeze; make some-
one’s blood run cold; man of blood;
man of blood and iron; man of blue
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Key Word Index

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blood; run in someone’s blood;
warm someone’s blood)
blue 
(boys in blue; come out of the
blue; baby blue-eyes; get into a blue;
get one’s blue; get the blues; have a
blue; have the baby blues; have the
blues; in blue; in the blue; look
blue; look blue around the gills; out
in the blue; out of the blue; sky
blue; up in the blue)
board 
(back to the drawing-board;
black board; chairman of the board;
chairman of the boards; college
board; college boards; go by the
board; on board; on the board; on
the boards; on the drawing board;
school board; spreading board; tilt
board; tilting board; walk the board;
walk the boards)
boat 
(air boat; be in the same boat;
float someone’s boat; fly boat; flying
boat; inflatable boat; just off the
boat; liberty boat; long-boat; post
boat; pull-boat; pulling boat; sail in
the same boat; water boat)