Basic Concepts 1

• large

  rambling
• more than enough space

  ample room
• things occupying too small a space

  cramped
• small/too little

  poky
• full of traffic, people, etc

  congested
• surrounded by people and not able to move

  hemmed in
• a space is very small; informal

  isn’t enough room to swing a cat
• back

  rear
• tightly packed

  a squash
• all his life

  all his born days
• very soon

  in a jiffy
• for a long time

  for donkey’s years / since the year dot
• for ever

  till the cows come home
• to keep for ever

  for keeps/for good
• very quickly

  at a rate of knots
• lasting for only a short time; formal

  transient
• continuing without hope of being stopped; formal

  inexorable
• just beginning; formal

  incipient
• lasting for a long time or made to last longer; formal

  protracted
• taumeln

  lurch
• schlendern

  amble
• stapfen (müde)

  trudge
• hinken/humpeln

  limp
• amazingly

  staggeringly
• polite and respectful

  courteous
• impolite and lacking respect

  discourteous
• showing a rude lack of interest in others

  offhand
• rude and not showing respect(much stronger than discourteous)

  insolent
• what you are expected to do in a social situation

  the done thing
• code of behaviour when using the internet

  netiquette
• move from side to side in an awkward, embarrassed or nervous way

  squirm
• small nervous laugh

  titter
• heavy, usually in serious manner

  weighty
• heavy, hard to handle

  unwieldly
• heavy, often used for machines and equipment that are difficult to handle; also used for systems, structures, etc.

  cumbersome
• slow and clumsy because of weight, but usually used for dull and excessively serious abstract things

  ponderous
• usually used of physical things; often suggesting ‘heavy movement’

  lumbering
• become thick and solid

  to congeal
• liquid cannot pass through

  impervious (to)