ENGLISH IDIOMS & DUTCH EYE-OPENERS TO BRIGHTEN YOUR DAY
To dodge a bullet
Anyone who has a connection to guns may appreciate this idiom. This is one idiom where the implied meaning is somewhat related to the literal meaning. Whether we look at the individual words or the idiomatic meaning, we can still conclude that it refers to some type of escape.
This idiom can be connected to another commonly used idiom, ‘A close call’. To ‘dodge a bullet’ therefore means ‘to escape an uncomfortable situation, or to have successfully avoided a serious problem’. If someone manages to avoid an undesirable, dangerous or harmful situation then we can say that they have ‘dodged a bullet’.
Example: Because of the restructuring at my workplace, many people lost their jobs. Fortunately for me, they needed someone who speaks Greek and Russian. Looks like I dodged a bullet!
Kickstart Language School and TheHagueOnline are teaming up to provide 'a feature a day' based on interesting English idioms, to help liven up our language; and Dutch eye-openers, to expand our knowledge of Holland!
