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  • Hi guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on idioms with "out".

  • Today we're going to look at some of the most common idioms that use "out" in the English

  • language. On the board, we have some sentences. At the bottom, we have some definitions for

  • each of the idioms that we will look at today. So let's start from the top, and you guys

  • can tell me what is the meaning of this idiom -- what is its definition. The first sentence

  • says, "Dan is out like a light." And we have an idiom that means something similar and

  • can be used in exactly the same situation or in a different situation as well, and it

  • says, "I was out cold for 20 seconds." So it is possible to say, "I was out like a light

  • for 20 seconds", or "Dan is out cold" as well. Now, what do you think these two phrases -- these

  • two idioms -- mean? Do they mean "broken/not working", "tired/exhausted", "not alert/uninformed",

  • "unconscious/asleep", "not possible/not permitted"? If we look at the context, and we say, "Dan

  • is out like a light", or "I was out cold for 20 seconds", I think the most obvious one

  • would probably be "unconscious/asleep". So here, we'll put No. 1. Okay, so if a person

  • is "out like a light" or "out cold", this can have two meanings. The first meaning can

  • be simply that they are deeply asleep. So if I say, "Wow, Dan is out like a light."

  • Like, "I can hit him. I can slap him. He's not waking up", okay? So a person who is not

  • only asleep but deeply asleep can be "out like a light" or "out cold". Now, if you think

  • of boxing, and you think of a boxer getting hit in the face and knocked out, he goes unconscious.

  • So you can say that, "Wow, he's out cold." If there's no response, he's "out cold". He's

  • unconscious. You can also say, "He's out like a light", okay?

  • All right, guys. Let's look at No. 2. It says, "The printer has been out of commission for

  • 2 days." Okay, so what do you think this means, "out of commission"? Is it, "broken/not working",

  • "tired/exhausted", "not alert/uninformed", or "not possible/permitted"? Well, when you

  • think of a printer, a printer works or it doesn't work, and if it's "out of commission"

  • it's probably "broken/not working", right?

  • So we often use this idiom when we talk about

  • machines, pieces of technology. It can not -- it can be for other things, too. Like,

  • if I said that "the toilet is broken", I can be a little, you know, exaggerative. I don't

  • know if "exaggerative" is a word, but I can exaggerate and say, "The toilet is out of

  • commission." "It's not working." "It's broken", okay?

  • The next one says, "He was out of gas after the first half." So imagine this is a soccer

  • player. You know, in soccer you have the first half, the second half. And after the first

  • half, he's "out of gas" like a car. So your car can be "out of gas". So what do you think

  • "out of gas" means in this context if we think about cars? Well, is it "tired/exhausted",

  • "not alert/uninformed", "not possible"? Obviously, "tired/exhausted", right? So this is No. 3.

  • Okay, so if you're "out of gas", you have no more energy. You are absolutely exhausted.

  • It can be for a car. It can also be used for a person.

  • No. 4, "Going on vacation this year is out of the question." So imagine that this year

  • you don't have a lot of money. Maybe you don't have a lot of free time, so you cannot go

  • on vacation. It is "out of the question". So this means that -- you probably figured

  • it out -- it's "not possible/not permitted".

  • Now, this idiom we often use in an imperative

  • sense. So if you ask your parents if you can go out somewhere or if you can sleep over

  • at a friend's house, and they say, "That is out of the question." "That's out of the question."

  • They are just stating the fact that it's not possible. They're not permitting you to do

  • it. So you can just say, "out of the question", which means, "not possible", or, "I'm not

  • allowing you to do it", okay? Finally, "I didn't understand the lesson because

  • I was out to lunch." Well, there's only one option left, so "not alert". It can also mean

  • "uninformed". So if you are "out to lunch", you're not actually out eating lunch somewhere.

  • It kind of means, like, your mind was in a different place, in a different location.

  • Like, you're on lunch when you're relaxed, and you just want to sit and chat with your

  • friends. So if you were "out to lunch", it means that you weren't paying attention or

  • your mind was in a different place, okay? So just as a review, guys, if you're "out

  • like a light" or "out cold", you are deeply asleep, or you are unconscious. If something

  • is "out of commission", it means it's not working. It's broken. If you're "out of gas",

  • you have no more energy. You're exhausted. Extremely tired. If something is "out of the

  • question", it's not possible. It's not permitted. And if you're "out to lunch", you -- not -- you

  • are not paying attention. You weren't alert, or you're uninformed of something.

  • All right, guys. If you'd like to test your understanding of these idioms, you can check

  • out the quiz, as always, on www.engvid.com. Take care, and good luck.

Hi guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on idioms with "out".

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