Longman General Dictionary Worksheets

www.longman-elt.com/dictionaries

Skill set: Colloquial and idiomatic English

Level: Advanced
Dictionary Recommended: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

Exercise 1: Find a word fast!

1 Work with a partner. See who can write these words in alphabetical order first.
seedy shifty lousy gory nerdy

1…………. 2…………. 3……………. 4………….… 5……………..

These words are all adjectives ending in -y. Use your Longman dictionary to find out what else
they have in common. Adjectives ending in -y are often formed from a noun. Try to find the
nouns used to form the adjectives above in your dictionary. Is there always a clear connection in
meaning between the nouns and adjectives?

Exercise 2: Words and examples

1 Write the words below in alphabetical order.
dealings makings findings leanings takings

1…………. 2…………. 3……………. 4…………… 5……………..

2 All of the words above are formed from common verbs, but they are all used as nouns with
idiomatic meanings. Look them up in your dictionary and copy the examples for each noun.

Exercise 3: Words and idioms

1 Write these words in alphabetical order.

rulebook pressed undoing nutshell two

1…………. 2…………. 3……………. 4……………… 5……………..

Now look the words up and write down the first idiom that you find at each word – the idioms
are given in dark print.

Exercise 4: Unknown words

1 Look at the biography below. Decide if the statements below are true (T) or false (F).

As a young man, Reed scraped a

living as a journalist on a local
newspaper. He went on to make a
name for himself as the gutsy
reporter who frequently put political
figures on the spot.

a Reed made very little money working on the local newspaper.

b Reed changed his name.
c Reed did not give up easily.
d Reed often caused politicians to resign.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English – with 64 pages of new words

 Longman General Dictionary Worksheets
www.longman-elt.com/dictionaries

2 Use the dictionary entries below to check your answers.

living n 1 [C usually singular] the
way that you earn money or the
money that you earn: It’s not a great
job, but it’s a living. do sth for a
living (=as your job) So what do you
do for a living? earn/make a living
It’s hard to make a decent living as a
musician. scrape/scratch a living
(=get just enough to eat or live) -
see LIFE (USAGE)
name n 3 [singular] the opinion that
people have about a person or
organisation; REPUTATION: have a
name for (=be known by people to
have a particular quality) The company
has a name for reliability. get a
good/bad name The restaurant got a
bad name for slow service. make a
name for yourself (=become known
and admired by many people) Manyac
made a name for himself in the
Parisian art world.
gutsy adj informal brave and
determined: a gutsy young fighter
spot n 10 put sb on the spot to
deliberately ask someone a question
that is difficult or embarrassing to
answer: Reporters put the governor
on the spot with questions about his
involvement in the bribery scandal.

Exercise 5: Spelling
1 Each sentence below contains an incomplete word. Use the context to help you decide what
the word is If necessary, you can look up the idioms/colloquial words in dark print to help
you. Then use your dictionary to check the correct spelling of the incomplete words.

a He does things on the spur of the moment - he’s very spon_________s

b It was tho_______ly awful - an out and out disaster!
c You showed a lot of guts - that was very cou__________s.
d She’s very ind________nt and knows her own mind.

Exercise 6: Idioms and prepositions

1 Look at the e-mail below and decide which preposition to write in each space.

Hi Kim
Thanks for the invitation to the party. As you know, I have exams coming up soon
and I have to finish an assignment for the end of this week, so I’m ____ to my
eyes in work. The hardest thing is trying to remember so much information at once
- I’m learning most of it ___ heart, and it seems to be working. I think that going
out would actually help take my mind ____ the exam, so yes, I will come - I
probably won’t stay very late though. See you around eight.

Marisa

2 Use the dictionary entries for the words in dark print to check your answers:

eye n [C] 3 be up to your
eyes in sth to be very busy
doing something: I really can’t
take on anything else just now -
I’m up to my eyes in paperwork
as it is.
mind n 12 take your mind off
sth to make yourself stop
thinking about something that is
worrying you: I decided to clean
the car to take my mind off the
events of the day.
heart n 9 know/learn something by
heart to know or learn something so
that you can remember all of it: You
have to know all the music by heart

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English – with 64 pages of new words

Longman General Dictionary Worksheets
www.longman-elt.com/dictionaries

Teacher’s Notes/Answer Key

This worksheet is aimed at helping students to develop their general dictionary skills
with the help of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, and focuses on
idiomatic and colloquial language.

Exercise 1
1 gory 2 lousy 3 nerdy 4 seedy 5 shifty
They are all informal adjectives and have negative connotations/meanings
gory - gore (sense 1); lousy - louse (sense 2); nerdy - nerd; seedy - seed (no clear
connection in meaning); shifty - shift (no clear connection in meaning)

Exercise 2
1 dealings 2 findings 3 leanings 4 makings 5 takings
You could point out to students that these words are always/usually used in the
plural form, but that they will sometimes have to find this particular use of the word
within the entry or in example sentences for a singular headword (eg making,
finding).

Exercise 3
1 nutshell - (to put it) in a nutshell
2 pressed - be pressed for time/money etc
3 rulebook - go by the rulebook
4 two - put two and two together
5 undoing - be sb’s undoing

Exercise 4
a T (scraped a living)
b F (made a name for himself = became well-known/admired)
c T (gutsy)
d F (put … on the spot = asked embarrassing/difficult questions)

Exercise 5

a spontaneous
b thoroughly
c courageous
d independent

Exercise 6
Encourage students to look at example sentences and bold phrases in each entry.

up to my eyes in work
learning most of it by heart
take my mind off the exam

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English – with 64 pages of new words