disguise

disguise (v)

to change someone's appearance so that people cannot recognize them

disguise yourself as somebody/something

• Maybe you could disguise yourself as a waiter and sneak in there.
• He escaped across the border disguised as a priest.
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to change the appearance, sound, taste etc of something so that people do not recognize it:

• There's no way you can disguise that southern accent.
• An antique dealer disguises himself and travels around the countryside buying valuable pieces of furniture at giveaway prices pretending he wants them for other purposes.

disguise something as something

• a letter bomb disguised as a musical greetings card

to hide a fact or feeling so that people will not notice it:

• Try as he might, Dan couldn't disguise his feelings for Katie.

disguise the fact (that)

• There's no disguising the fact that business is bad.
• The speech was seen by many as a thinly disguised attack on the president.

to burn down

to burn down: to destroy completely by fire; to burn slowly, but completely (usually said of candles) (S)

• The fire spread so quickly that the firefighters could not prevent the whole block of building from burning down.
• There was a large amount of wax on the table where the candles had burned down.

to catch fire

to catch fire: to begin to burn

• Don't stand too close to the gas stove. Your clothes may catch fire.
• No one seems to know how the old building caught fire.

to blow up

to blow up: to inflate, to fill with air(S); to explode, to destroy (or be destroyed) by explosion (S)

• Daddy, could you please blow up this balloon for me?
• When the airplane crashed into the ground, it blew up immediately.
• The military had to blow the missile up in midair when it started to go the wrong way.
• she kept blowing the chewing gum up and out.

out of date

out of date: not modern; not current, not timely; no longer available in published form

Again, hyphens separate the parts of this idiom when it precedes a noun form as, in the second example. The passive verb to be outdated derives from this idiom.

• Many people buy new cars when their old cars become out of date.
• I don't know why Gene likes to wear out-of-date clothing. His clothes are so outdated that even his girlfriend hates to be seen with him.
• This book can't be ordered any more because it is out of date.

up to date

up to date: modern; current, timely

Hyphens(-) separate the parts of this idiom when it precedes a noun form, as in the third example. The verb to update derives from this idiom.

• The president insisted that the company bring its aging equipment up to date.
• This catalog is not up to date. It was published several years ago.
• The news program gave an up-to-date account of the nuclear accident. The newscaster said that he would update the news report every half hour.

to get carried away / to go overboard

to get carried away: to act in an extreme manner

A related idiom is to go overboard

• Even if you have an awful day at work, you shouldn't get carried away and quit your job.
• James went overboard while shopping for his wife's birthday present. He spent way too much money!

to keep track of

to keep track of: to keep or maintain a record of; to remember the location or status of

• Steve keeps track of all the long-distance telephone calls related to his business that he makes from his home or cell phone.
• With seven small children, how do the Wilsons keep track of all of them?

from now on

from now on: from this time into the future

• Mr.Lee's doctor told him to cut down on eating fatty foods from now on, or else he might suffer heart disease.
• I'm sorry that I dropped by at a bad time. From now on I'll call ahead of time.

to get through

to get through: to finish, to complete

This idiom is followed either by the -ing form of a verb(a gerund) or by the preposition with.

• I didn't get through studying last night until almost eleven o'clock.
• At what time does your wife get through with work every day?