keep tabs on — to observe carefully, keep a record of [dict]

My officemate was about to leave. "So early?" I asked. "Are you keeping tabs on me?" he raised his eye brows.

live up to the bargain — fufill the agreement [freedict]

Joseph Bramah was a legendary locksmith. Once he designed a secure lock and promised to pay a large sum of money to the first person who could break it. Finally a guy called Alfred Hobbs opened the lock after trying for 50 hours non-stop (what a respectful nerd!). Finally Bramah paid him the award as promised. Someone commented on Mr Bramah, "He lived up to the bargain."

zip through — to move rapidly with a high-pitched sound [wiktionary]

Someone was explaining the security of physical locks. A single lock could be configured to accommodate millions of different keys. The number of keys may appear large to some people, but a computer can exhaustively search for the right "key code" rapidly. He said, "A Pentium 4 can zip through all the possibilities." The phrase makes the "zipping sound"; you can appreciate how fast it really is.

drowse off — change from a waking to a sleeping state [dict]
doze off — to fall into a light sleep [answers]

I am attending 3-day workshop on security protocols. Today, the workshop organizers treated us to a lavish lunch with a variety of food. The guy sitting next to me felt full and asked for a cup of coffee. However, the reply was that coffee was not included in the lunch. "Well, I guess I will drowse off doze off this afternoon," he said with a helpless smile.

the pot calling the kettle black — to say something about someone else which is actually true of you yourself [dict]

In Will & Grace, Jack described Will as abnormal and asked him to see a doctor. Will felt disgruntled, "That is the pot calling the kettle black." A very similar Chinese saying is: "50 paces laughing at 100 paces" — The story goes back to an ancient war in China. When the real fighting started, some soldiers were afraid of death and ran away. One such soldier who ran for 50 paces laughed at another who had run for 100 paces, "Hey dude, you coward!"

out of your league — an expression to say someone who is too good for you [urban]

In Friends, Ross was in a game to list five hottest celebrities he dreamed to sleep with. On his list, one was Jessica Rabbit. Rachel teased him, “You do realize that she is a cartoon, and way out of your league?”

knock if off — stop it [dict]

In The War At Home, Larry and Mike were playing video games. They talked to each other: “I will kill you”, “No, I will kill you” … When hearing their talking, Dave mistook that the two sons were fighting again. He shouted, “Can you two knock it off?”

pass off — misrepresent something or someone [dict]

From BBC news, “A US political commentator has apologised for passing off remarks made by George Clooney in interviews as a blog entry by the actor on her website.”

steal one’s thunder — to do something that takes attention away from someone else [freedict]

In Friends, Monica was ecstatic on the day of her engagement. However, she got mad at seeing Rachel and Ross kissing each other. She thought if others knew Rachel and Ross were getting back together, she would get less attention and blessing. She shouted to Rachel, “You always try to steal my thunder!” The origin of this phrase is interesting.

touch wood — something that you say when you want your luck or a good situation to continue [freedict]

I used to share office with a summer internship student. Though young, he had over ten-year experience in hacking. Once, I asked him whether his computer had ever been hit by a virus. He quickly put his hand on the table and said, “Touch wood.” (so far so good)

wrap it up — to conclude or finish [dict]

In Prison Break, Michael and some others were digging an escape tunnel in a room under the camouflage of doing the assigned renovation work. A prison officer came in and asked them to leave, “Wrap it up. Let’s go.” A different usage of this phrase can be found here.

hear someone out — to listen to someone’s talk until the end [dict]

In Prison Break, Michael wanted to rescue his death-sentenced brother, Lincoln, out of the prison. He told the prison doctor, Sara — who had a feeling for him — that his brother was innocent and an amnesty from her governor father was needed. However, Sara found it hard to believe that Lincoln was actually framed by the US vice-president. So Michael implored her to contact Lincoln’s lawyer, Veronica, who had all the evidence. Later, Veronica came to the prison to visit Michael and Lincoln. She told Michael that Sara had contacted her. “Did she hear you out?” Michael asked eagerly. After getting the affirmative answer, he felt relieved.

top-flight — First-rate [dict]

The Computer Laboratory aims to raise more money for research students in 2009 (but not now …) when the University of Cambridge will celebrate its 800th anniversary. In a pamphlet, it reads, “… we need money to support more of the top-flight doctoral students who seek to come here.” (But this phrase sounds too good; it doesn’t apply to me. )

eye candy — something visually attractive [urbandict]

In Chinese, the phrase “ice-creams to eyes” is oftern used to refer to pretty girls. The English equivalent is “eye candy“. I encountered this phrase in a Slashdot article.

field day — happy day [dict]

Someone told me that he had good news to tell his boss. “He will have a field day after hearing this news,” he said.

have/take the bit in one’s teeth — To be uncontrollable [thefreedic]

Referring to the previous post on “chomp at the bit“, someone told me another idiom “have the bit in one’s teeth“. If you know what the “bit” means, you would find this idiom very vivid and easy to remember.

cut-and-dried — routine; settled [dict]

From a paper Secure Distributed Human Computation: “We are well aware that security is less of a cut-and-dried issue in the human computation context than in the cryptographic context, but we view this as an interesting research challenge.”

bottom line — the final result, the essential point [dict]

In 24, a terrorist set off a chemical weapon, called the Sentox gas, inside the building of the Counter Terrorist Unit. The gas immediately killed about half of the staff, with the survivors locked in the sealed rooms. However, the gas was corroding the seals and threatening the lives inside the room. Chloe updated Jack with the latest situation: the percentage of the seal corrosion. Jack quickly asked, “Tell me the bottom line.” “We have less than 20 minutes left.” Chloe replied.

make a scene — to be loud and rude with other people or in public [idioms]

In Cambridge, many students like to go to the Parker’s Piece meadow to play football on the weekends. Last Saturday, there was this guy who took every chance to shoot toward the goal. But he always blew the ball too high, and then the goalkeeper had to pick it up. Finally, the goalkeeper couldn’t stand him and asked him to stop kicking the ball widely. The guy looked a bit embarrassed and said, “Others blow the ball as well. Why do you make a scene with me?”

a tough cookie — a person who is hard to deal with [dict]

(From wenxuecity news) A new US ambassador is to take office in Taiwan. His primary mission is to rein in the Taiwan president’s pro-independence speech and action. In the article, he is described as “a tough cookie” to Chen Shui-Bian.

chomp at the bit (doing something) — to be eager and not willing to wait to do something [freesearch]

From the rowing captain’s email: “After a successful Lents campaign, I know that many of you are chomping at the bit wanting to get racing again…” It seems debatable whether the right phrase should be “champ at the bit” instead of “chomp at the bit”. I asked an American, and he said he used “chomp at the bit” all the time, but never the other one. Interestingly enough, a British insisted that it should be “champ at the bit“. “Tell your American friend,” she said, “He is wrong.” Of course, she was kidding; either one is right.

bon appetit — enjoy your meal [m-w]

In “Lost”, after handing food to Henry, John said, “Bon appetit.” It took me a few days to figure out what he said exactly. It was a South African friend who finally told me the answer based on my vague recollection of the pronunciation.

call the shots — to exercise authority, be in charge [dict]

The fascinating thing about the “Lost” show is that you never know what’s next. Although the newly found man, Henry, a new character in the recent episode, had a pity pitiful and innocent look, I think he should be a spy. He said to John, “I don’t understand why you always let the doctor call the shots.” He was trying to undermine the relationship between John and Jack.

wrap one’s brain (head) around — think hard to understand something [ref]

In “Lost”, a guy, called Henry, suddenly appeared on the island from nowhere. Jack and John had to lock him in the hatch, fearing that he was a spy. John gave him a book for killing time. But Henry found the book very boring; he liked Hemingway’s works instead. He said, “They had stuff I can wrap my brain around“.

at loose ends — In an unsettled or uncertain situation [dict]

The captain of the rowing club urges urged us to do more physical training. He said, “if If you are at loose ends today, come to the gym to do some exercise.”

off the top of one’s head — without much thought [answers]

To complete an application form, I need to get the signature of the person in charge. So I brought the form to see him. After browsing the form, he told me, “Off the top of my head, there is no problem. But I also need to talk to some other people.”

wind up — end up [dict]

Dave asked Hillary to work harder and get to college, otherwise her life would be miserable. But Hillary didn’t care, as she thought she was pretty and her life couldn’t be miserable. Dave said, “Hey, your mother is pretty too, and look what where she wound up.”

flunk out — to expel or be expelled from a school or course because of work that does not meet required standards [dict]

In “The War at Home”, Vicky told her husband, Dave, that they would have a big problem. Dave almost freaked out as he was afraid that Vicky may have found out his hooking up with Vicky’s best friend when in college. But it was actually about their daughter, Hillary. She got 11 out of 100 in the math test. Dave was relieved and said to himself, “I thought my marriage was over, but it turns out my daughter just flunked out of the school. It’s a good day.”