まず、Simon先生の英語ブログを読んでみよう！

It was going to happen sooner of later, but the time had finally come. It was time to take my son to the murder house…

My daughter has been there numerous times now, crying from the time we entered the car park until after the whole ordeal had finished. It is absolute murder trying to get her to go. We usually don’t let her know until she is sitting in the car and on the way there to minimize the trauma.

This time she was due to go, and my son also for his first time. Not long after she woke up, she started asking “Where are we going today?” She could sense some thing was amiss from our vague answers, “We’re going somewhere, and then somewhere fun.” By the time we were getting ready to leave, she started asking if we were going to the doctor’s and whether she’d be getting an injection. We promised her that we weren’t and she wouldn’t, and all got into the car.

On the way there we spotted a murder of crows loitering at the street corner, an ominous sign. We told our daughter the planned destination and she started to cry. We asked her to try and be brave so that her one-year-old brother wouldn’t fly into a panic. Surprisingly, she stopped crying and promised she’d try her best. We pulled into the car park and a large sign loomed over us “Children’s Dentist”. We had arrived…

This time my daughter kept to her word. She didn’t cry and cooperated with the dentist. She still wouldn’t sit in the dentist’s chair, but it was a massive improvement. The dentist couldn’t believe it was the same girl and praised her profusely. My son, on the other hand, screamed blue murder almost the whole time. The dentist couldn’t take any photos of his teeth, but managed to brush them. All in all, a successful trip.

Since my daughter had been so good, we told her we would eat out for lunch. We asked her what she wanted, and she replied, “I could murder a hamburger…”

Going to the dentist reminded me of how we used to call it “the murder house”, as well as other peculiar uses we have for the word “murder”, which I thought I’d introduce.

ーそれでは、本文の中からピックアップした英語表現を見てみましょう！

“the murder house”

This is an unfortunate name given to the dentist’s clinic. It was more something my father’s generation used, but we still heard it from time to time when I was at school. I looked into it just for this blog, and found that this term is particular to New Zealand.

Apparently, it comes from schools, of all places. We used to have a dental nurse at every school, who usually operated from a small building that was isolated from the other school buildings, giving it a slightly sinister presence. People started calling the buildings “the murder house” and the name stuck.

“It is absolute murder trying to get her to go”

If we say that doing something is “murder” it means it is extremely tough and difficult

(e.g. The last two kilometers of the marathon were murder, but I somehow made it to the finish line.)

“a murder of crows”

In English, we have various names for groups of animals, such as a “school of fish”, a “pride of lions” and a “gaggle of geese”. A group of crows is called a “murder”. I’m not sure of the origins of this, but it seems quite befitting, as they are quite sinister looking.

“screamed blue murder”

To “scream blue murder” means to shout very loudly or make a huge fuss about something. It is usually some kind of overreaction

(e.g. He’s spoilt rotten, and he’ll scream blue murder if he doesn’t get what he wants.)

“I could murder a cheeseburger”

The expression “I could murder a …” is used when we are extremely hungry and really feel like eating a particular kind of food.

It implies that we will devour that food in a very short amount of time.

Have a nice Golden Week!

See you next month!

フルーツフルイングリッシュで英語表現の楽しさ感じてください。初めての方には英作文添削チケット2回分をプレゼント。
「無料英語テスト800問（解説付）」メルマガも大人気。今すぐチェック！

Simon

Hello! My name is Simon.

I am from New Zealand, and have been living and teaching English in Japan since 1999.

My hobbies include movies, playing the guitar, gardening and hiking.

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