Sports Idioms and Expressions In Everyday English – 英会話・英語 アミック
2018/06/29
Many of the more frequently-used English idioms and expressions originate from sports. However these 10, and countless others, are now so commonplace that they’ve taken on lives of their own in our everyday speech.
| Term/Expression | Origin | Non-Sports Meaning | Example sentence |
| Ballpark | Baseball | To give an estimated guess | Could you ballpark an estimate on next month’s sales figures? |
| By a nose | Horse racing | To finish something by a slim margin of distance or time | He won the election by a nose. |
| Down to the wire | Horse racing | To finish something at the last minute | It came down to the wire, but I finished all my homework before class. |
| Off-base | Baseball | Something that is inappropriate | Her comments about my hair were way off-base. |
| Out of left field | Baseball | A surprising or unexpected event | The news about his firing came completely out of left field. |
| Par for the course | Golf | The expected behavior for a certain situation | Andrew forgetting his umbrella is pretty par for the course. |
| Rain check | Baseball | To postpone an invitation to do something until a later date | Can we take a rain check on our date tonight? I’ve had a long day. |
| Saved by the bell | Boxing | Spared from misfortune at the last instant by some outside force | I was literally saved by the bell when the fire alarm went off during our test. |
| The ball is in my/his/her/your court | Tennis | Someone’s turn to take action next | We’ve done everything we can to help him; the ball is in his court now. |
