BELLY UP and SNAKE IN THE GRASS:

FROM SAMPATH’S DESK:

BELLY UP and SNAKE IN THE GRASS:

 

BELLY UP:

 

Meaning:

 

Hopelessly ruined or defeated – to break or malfunction or fail or come to an end – to fall apart, cease to work, or die - If you say that a company GOES BELLY-UP, it fails and does not have enough money to pay its debts 

 

It can also be hyphenated thus – belly-up

 

Example sentences:

 

Factories and farms WENT BELLY UP because of the debt crisis.

 

The way this business is run, it is just a matter of time before it goes BELLY-UP.

 

His business WENT BELLY UP.

 

My laptop WENT BELLY-UP after it fell to the ground a few times.

 

If the company invests money without proper returns, it will go BELLY-UP one day.

 

After years of barely surviving on donations, the Social Club finally went BELLY-UP.

 

One of these magazines will go BELLY-UP by the end of 2022 unable to withstand the cut-throat competition currently brewing.

 

They thought my business would go BELLY-UP. But my workers stood up to the occasion to make it bounce back from a crisis. Now it’s doing well.

 

SNAKE IN THE GRASS:

 

Meaning:

 

An unfaithful, untrustworthy, underhanded and deceitful person – a traitor – idiom indicates someone who always pretend to be your friend while actually is an unethical person even though you have trusted him; we can call him a treacherous person – one who feigns friendship with the intent to deceive – a sneaky and despised person -a concealed danger - secretly faithless

 

Example sentences:

 

Now only I come to know that he’s a SNAKE IN THE GRASS. While pretending to be my friend, he was slandering me behind my back.

 

I never knew that he was a SNAKE IN THE GRASS. He spoiled my name in the company.

 

Did you hear that Ramu’s best friend stole money from his house? What a SNAKE IN THE GRASS!

 

We used to be friends, but who knew he would turn out to be such a SNAKE IN THE GRASS?

 

The Crime Investigation Officer opined that the very same SNAKE IN THE GRASS has carried out this murder also.

 

Didn’t I tell you that he’s just a SNAKE IN THE GRASS and a guy you can’t trust. See, he has exhibited his true colour. Hasn’t he?

 

That SNAKE IN THE GRASS wrongly reported me to the teacher.

 

Be careful! There might be a SNAKE IN THE GRASS.

 

 

Proverb:

 

சாண் பாம்பானாலும் முழத்தடி வேண்டும்.

Although the snake may be only a span-long, a stick a cubit long is required to kill it.

 

(R.SAMPATH)

20.11.2021