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

bear market • bull market
bear market—(Stock Market) a period of time when the
prices of securities are falling or are expected to fall, and in-
vestors pull out their money: Two months before the end of
the bear market, Business Week ran an article titled “Running
scared from stocks.”
bull market—(Stock Market) a period when investment
seems promising and people are keen to do it: While the bull
market in Asian growth is far from over, there is also a lot of
Latin American growth that is going unnoticed.
bear someone • bear with someone
bear someone —
1
. (usually Passive) give birth to a child: She
bore three children in three years. 2. (usually negat.) tolerate
or endure smb.: She could not bear the man Joe she was living
with.
bear with someone —put up with a person; show patience
towards smb.: Bear with me while I try to remember exactly
what he said.
beard the lion in his den • walk into the lion’s den
beard the lion in his den —confront a person of power coura-
geously on his own ground: Seeking to give Robbie’s father a
piece of her mind she elects to beard the lion in his den — or
rather his business office.
walk into the lion’s den —find oneself in a difficult situation
in which one has to face unfriendly or aggressive people: After
the failure of the negotiations, he had to walk into the lion’s
den and face the Press.
beat a dead horse • work off the dead horse
beat a dead horse —(also: flog a dead horse) pursue a futile
goal; try to revive interest in a dead issue: Son, we talked about
this and the decision was “no.” You are beating a dead horse.
work off the dead horse —(also: work out the dead horse) do
work for which payment has already been made: The sailor
was advanced one month’s pay…. During the first month out,
he was “working off the dead horse.”