分享一个知识点。 Reader question: Please explain “take it on the chin” in the following sentences: “Wall Street took it on the chin again today. The Dow closed down more than 400 points.” My comments: Literally it means Wall Street took a beating. In other words it suffered a setback – the Dow Jones index lost more than 400 points, as the next sentence explains. “Take it on the chin” is a phrase from boxing. Take “it” on the chin – “it” represents a blow as two boxers repeatedly hit each other on the head in order to knock the other out. The chin, of course, is the front part of your face below the mouth, round your jaws, which are areas that move when you eat. What happens when a boxer takes a blow to the chin? Well, at least two phrases happen (^_^), if, that is, you can bear with the pain that comes with it without a murmur. One is, they “keep their chin up”, meaning they keep fighting with high spirit. The other phrase of course is “take it on the chin”. Both phrases describe the boxer’s refusal to allow themselves to be affected by temporary setbacks. Other than boxing, when we describe someone as being able to “take it on the chin” and remain “chin up”, we usually mean to say they are able to bear with defeat, difficulty, criticism, abuse, etc and get on with what they have been doing undeterred. |