The phrase, the end all be all, means “the only goal, reason, or valuable part of something” and is used as a noun: Winning is not the end all be all of playing sports; fun is more important. As you can see, we usually say that something is NOT the end all be all. This makes sense, […]

The adverb phrase, slowly but surely, describes a slow process that will reach a certain end: Just keep dieting and, slowly but surely, you will lose weight. Slowly but surely, climate change will make life more difficult. If you keep working, slowly but surely, success will come. As you can see in these sentences, we […]

The phrase whatever floats your boat, means “whatever you like, or whatever makes you happy is okay or permissible”: Person 1: What shall we eat for dinner? Person 2: How about Chinese food? Person 1: Whatever floats your boat! There are many versions of this phrase, which became common in America during the 1980s. This […]

The phrase, fits like a glove, means to fit perfectly, to be very appropriate for. It can be used to describe the fitting of clothing—such as for a dress or a shirt, or it can be used metaphorically, for descriptions of people and accusations: The accusation of fraud fit him like a glove; he made […]

“All That Glitters is Not Gold” is a profound and useful phrase, given to us by William Shakespeare. It means that “attractive things are not always valuable” or “things that look valuable can be fake or deceptive.” The syntax of this phrase is poetic. With normal syntax, it would be: “Not all that glitters is […]