1. (nearly) jump out of one’s skin 大吃一驚,或欣喜若狂
to react strongly out of shock or surprise
e.g. Oh! You really scared me. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
2. scare sth. out of sb. 把人嚇個半死
to frighten one very badly
(sth. can be the living daylights, the wits, the hell, the shit, etc. Use shit with discretion.)
e.g. Geez, you scared the living daylights out of me!
3. see things 產(chǎn)生幻覺,疑神疑鬼
to imagine that one sees sb. or sth. that is not there
e.g. Lisa says that she saw a ghost, but she was just seeing things.
4. at death’s door 一腳踏進鬼門關(guān)
very near the end of one’s life (often an exaggeration)
e.g. I felt so sick, it was sure I was at death’s door.
5. a brush with death 鬼門關(guān)走了一回,差點出人命
a near-death experience
e.g. After her recent brush with death, Claire seemed more friendly and outgoing.
6. run scared 戰(zhàn)戰(zhàn)兢兢
to behave as if one were going to fail
e.g. When we lost that big contract, everyone in the office was running scared. We thought we’d be fired.
7. come back to haunt sb. 重新纏上某人
[for a bad memory] to recur; for the consequences of a bad decision to affect one negatively later
e.g. I never dreamed that minor traffic ticket could come back to haunt me years later.