more or less: approximately, almost; somewhat, to a certain degree Examples of MORE OR LESS Although your bedroom feels smaller, it’s more or less the same size as mine. Ted more or less agreed with our decision to put off the meeting until more members could show up. At least he didn’t object strongly.

to leave (someone or something) alone: not to disturb, to stay away from (also: to let alone) Examples of TO LEAVE ALONE Leave the baby alone for a while and she may go to sleep. After the cat had scratched Peter twice, he let it alone.

to knock one self out: to work very hard (sometimes too hard) to do somethingA reflexive pronoun must divide the idiom. Examples of TO KNOCK ONE SELF OUT She really knocked herself out trying to pass that difficult class. Don’t knock yourself out during practice. Save your strength for the competition later.

to take up with: to consult someone about an important matter Examples of TO TAKE UP WITH If you don’t like it, take it up with your Congress member, and your conscience. Take this up with your manager, if you can’t help me.

to rule out: to refuse to consider, to prohibit Examples of TO RULE OUT Despite the man’s condition, he could not be ruled out as a suspect, Akers said. The price of half-decent tomatoes at this time of year rules that one out.

to cut short: to make shorter, to interrupt Examples of TO CUT SHORT The moderator asked the speaker to cut short his talk because there wasn’t much time remaining for questions from the audience. We were very unfortunate when we received bad news from home that forced us to cut our trip short.