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Hi guys. I'm Alex. Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on idioms with "out".
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Today we're going to look at some of the most common idioms that use "out" in the English
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language. On the board, we have some sentences. At the bottom, we have some definitions for
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each of the idioms that we will look at today. So let's start from the top, and you guys
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can tell me what is the meaning of this idiom -- what is its definition. The first sentence
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says, "Dan is out like a light." And we have an idiom that means something similar and
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can be used in exactly the same situation or in a different situation as well, and it
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says, "I was out cold for 20 seconds." So it is possible to say, "I was out like a light
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for 20 seconds", or "Dan is out cold" as well. Now, what do you think these two phrases -- these
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two idioms -- mean? Do they mean "broken/not working", "tired/exhausted", "not alert/uninformed",
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"unconscious/asleep", "not possible/not permitted"? If we look at the context, and we say, "Dan
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is out like a light", or "I was out cold for 20 seconds", I think the most obvious one
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would probably be "unconscious/asleep". So here, we'll put No. 1. Okay, so if a person
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is "out like a light" or "out cold", this can have two meanings. The first meaning can
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be simply that they are deeply asleep. So if I say, "Wow, Dan is out like a light."
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Like, "I can hit him. I can slap him. He's not waking up", okay? So a person who is not
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only asleep but deeply asleep can be "out like a light" or "out cold". Now, if you think
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of boxing, and you think of a boxer getting hit in the face and knocked out, he goes unconscious.
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So you can say that, "Wow, he's out cold." If there's no response, he's "out cold". He's
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unconscious. You can also say, "He's out like a light", okay?
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All right, guys. Let's look at No. 2. It says, "The printer has been out of commission for
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2 days." Okay, so what do you think this means, "out of commission"? Is it, "broken/not working",
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"tired/exhausted", "not alert/uninformed", or "not possible/permitted"? Well, when you
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think of a printer, a printer works or it doesn't work, and if it's "out of commission"
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it's probably "broken/not working", right?
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So we often use this idiom when we talk about
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machines, pieces of technology. It can not -- it can be for other things, too. Like,
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if I said that "the toilet is broken", I can be a little, you know, exaggerative. I don't
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know if "exaggerative" is a word, but I can exaggerate and say, "The toilet is out of
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commission." "It's not working." "It's broken", okay?
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The next one says, "He was out of gas after the first half." So imagine this is a soccer
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player. You know, in soccer you have the first half, the second half. And after the first
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half, he's "out of gas" like a car. So your car can be "out of gas". So what do you think
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"out of gas" means in this context if we think about cars? Well, is it "tired/exhausted",
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"not alert/uninformed", "not possible"? Obviously, "tired/exhausted", right? So this is No. 3.
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Okay, so if you're "out of gas", you have no more energy. You are absolutely exhausted.
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It can be for a car. It can also be used for a person.
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No. 4, "Going on vacation this year is out of the question." So imagine that this year
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you don't have a lot of money. Maybe you don't have a lot of free time, so you cannot go
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on vacation. It is "out of the question". So this means that -- you probably figured
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it out -- it's "not possible/not permitted".
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Now, this idiom we often use in an imperative
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sense. So if you ask your parents if you can go out somewhere or if you can sleep over
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at a friend's house, and they say, "That is out of the question." "That's out of the question."
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They are just stating the fact that it's not possible. They're not permitting you to do
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it. So you can just say, "out of the question", which means, "not possible", or, "I'm not
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allowing you to do it", okay? Finally, "I didn't understand the lesson because
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I was out to lunch." Well, there's only one option left, so "not alert". It can also mean
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"uninformed". So if you are "out to lunch", you're not actually out eating lunch somewhere.
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It kind of means, like, your mind was in a different place, in a different location.
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Like, you're on lunch when you're relaxed, and you just want to sit and chat with your
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friends. So if you were "out to lunch", it means that you weren't paying attention or
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your mind was in a different place, okay? So just as a review, guys, if you're "out
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like a light" or "out cold", you are deeply asleep, or you are unconscious. If something
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is "out of commission", it means it's not working. It's broken. If you're "out of gas",
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you have no more energy. You're exhausted. Extremely tired. If something is "out of the
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question", it's not possible. It's not permitted. And if you're "out to lunch", you -- not -- you
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are not paying attention. You weren't alert, or you're uninformed of something.
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All right, guys. If you'd like to test your understanding of these idioms, you can check
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out the quiz, as always, on www.engvid.com. Take care, and good luck.