to live up to: to fulfill (a standard or promise) Examples of TO LIVE UP TO It was clear that the lazy student would never live up to his family’s expectations. It surprised us that the car salesperson lived up to all the promises he made.

to buy out: to purchase a business or company; to purchase all of a person’s chares or stock Examples of TO BUY OUT When the larger scale media companies buy out the more smaller-scaled or local companies they become more powerful within the market. The other directors have offered to buy me out.

to take apart: to disassemble, to separate the parts of something Examples of TO TAKE APART He’d have to take it apart each winter and put it back together again by spring. As a child, Gary used to take doorknobs apart and put them back together.

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.

hard of hearing: partially deaf, not able to hear well Examples of HARD OF HEARING The elderly man pretended to be hard of hearing, so nobody would bother him on the train. Playing in too many rock bands made the musician hard of hearing while he was still young.

about to: ready to, just going to Examples of ABOUT TO He rode in a van with five men who were about to be deported to Mexico, he said. You also must figure out how long you’ve held the security you’re about to sell.