Is this a day on the calendar that can’t see? Not at all. It’s a romantic meeting with some one you have not met before. How can that happen? Well someone you know sets up the date, so it is called a blind date because you can’t see the person until you meet them. Here is an example:

Jenny: Where did you meet Bob?
Mary: We met on a blind date.

Popularity: 29%

The phrase “the cat is out of the bag” means to reveal (make known) a secret. The origin of this phrase comes from when farmers during bad economic times, would sell a pig by putting a cat in a bag and trying to sell it as a pig, hoping that the buyer would not know the actual contents of the bag before the farmer got away. So the phrase “The cat is out of the bag” refers to an instance in which an individual trying this trickery is caught (i.e. the person performing the trickery is unable to cheat the other person.)

Popularity: 30%

The phrase “bare bones” refers to the absolute minimum. You can think of it as eating all the meat off of a bone, hence the term “bare bones”. Here are some examples of how to use it:

“I want nothing extra, just the bare bones.” means you want the item with the least number of extras such as a car with no options.
“This is the bare bones guide to learning English.” means a book explaining in the shortest way how to learn English.

Popularity: 36%

The word mushroomed means expand or increase usually in a rapid way. Here is an example:

• The number of cicada mushroomed to thousands in a matter of days.
• The federal budget deficit has mushroomed to 40 trillion dollars.

Popularity: 34%

“What’s at stake?” is an interesting idiom that means to ask how much. It often used just like this to ask someone what something will cost, or how much time something will take or even if a relationship will be lost. Here is an example:

• John: We put a lot of time into this business deal. I would hate to lose it over something so trivial as a misunderstanding.
• Jerry: I understand. But if we do not apologize, we will definitely lose the deal. What is at stake?
• John: Well, if we do not apologize, we will certainly lose the business. On the other hand, if we do apologize, then other customers might expect the same compensation.

Popularity: 34%