Nelly Min

Reader's question:

Senior Senate Republican aides said that an extension of all the income tax cuts was a foregone conclusion.

Could you explain "foregone conclusion"?

My comments:

"Foregone conclusion" is an inevitable result, or a conclusion formed in advance of argument or consideration.

Example: Our victory was a foregone conclusion.

This idiom was probably invented by Shakespeare (in Othello), but scholars are not all agreed about this. Today we use it to mean "predetermined outcome" – something anybody could have anticipated, but how we got from Othello to this meaning is a mystery.

Stare in the face

Call balls and strikes

Cyber Monday

Stare in the face

With a grain of salt

Out of nowhere

Shove it under the carpet

the sky is the limit

hit it off

get my rib in my heart

With bells on

No harm, no foul

Pick up the slack

length and breadth of

get up to speed on something

Borrowed time

On a shoestring

Shake a leg

Sing to a new tune

Truth lies somewhere in the middle

For all intents and purposes

Kick sth.when it's down

Opening credits

God only knows

About the author:

Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily website.