[PHRASE OF THE WEEK] ARE YOU A SHRINKING VIOLET?

I have just searched the term Shrinking Violet on Google. What have I found? Well, apart from many pages about the color (violet is also a color, in case you don’t know!), Mr. Know-it-all has provided me with a great deal of links to a “weight reduction method that women may use to magically 'reduce by a dress size in one treatment'”. Needless to say, it has also shown me lots of pictures of women with measuring tapes as well as books, a Facebook page, and almost naked ladies.

Never type it in front of your students!

What I was really trying to find was Commonly-Used English Phrases. When it comes to slang, idioms, phrases and the like, it really calls my attention!

I have realized that I hadn’t been posting more “PHRASES OF THE WEEK” and that made me feel guilty. My readers usually come to read something that make them feel as if they learned something from PORTAL DA LÍNGUA INGLESA. I have received some messages about that!

I know I have been busy, but since I decided to start a blog (It’s time-consuming; hard work. Don’t do it!) And then people started following me, I felt as though I had to share an interesting thing here occasionally.

By the way, do you guys still remember what A FAIR-WEATHER FRIEND is? No? (Read here)

[Five minutes later] Okay. Now that you have just read another phrases-of-the-week type of post, let’s move on, shall we?

READ THE SENTENCES BELOW:

“Withington was no shrinking violet either; he was playing up to the widow for all he was worth.”

(MacLeod, Charlotte SOMETHING IN THE WATER)

“He's no shrinking violet when it comes to competition.”

“Try not to be a shrinking violet at the gathering tonight; everyone there will be casual and no one will bite!"

“My mother was not by any means a shrinking violet. She had spirit, friends, family and a wide social network and work contacts.”

“She loves appearing on television and is no shrinking violet when it comes to expressing her views.”

ENOUGH! Now we have many examples with SHRINKING VIOLET (Pronunciation).

In a nutshell, shrinking violet is:

1 Someone who is shy; hesitant; or afraid to have a voice in social situations. (Urban Dictionary)

2 Person who is very shy or modest and does not like to attract attention. (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/)

3 With more details, The Shrinking Violet is “the withdrawn character, usually but not always female, who walks through the school hallways with her head down and wants nothing more than to blend in with the scenery to avoid all attention because she believes that her presence is worthless or unwanted (…)”

“(…) Some Shrinking Violets will accept their status, but be plagued with that nagging feeling that they can be more than they assume. Other Shrinking Violets will hate their crippling insecurities and want to reach out to others, but be paralyzed by fear of rejection.”

 (http://tvtropes.org/)

The expression, according to phrases.org “may have originated as the lyrical name of a flower rather than a person but it is now mainly used figuratively to describe modest and introverted individuals.” (phrases.org.uk)

At this point, you should know what a SHRINKING VIOLET (Pronunciation), a have a question – are you a Shrinking Violet?

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Bruno Coriolano has written this post. If you want to learn more about him, read his profile on LinkedIn (Bruno’s profile)

“But I already knew this one!”

Okay, then. Take a look at the pictures below, won’t you?

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