BRUSH-OFF, GET/GIVE (SOMEONE) THE, BUG, BULL IN A CHINA SHOP: American English Idioms #28

BRUSH-OFF, GET/GIVE (SOMEONE) THE

Failing to give a person a sincere conversation is called the brush-off. The term is often used when someone is not interested in pursuing a romantic relationship with someone, but instead deflecting their attention so they can pursue another person.

In the world of academia, when one person brushes off another this often means that they are not interested in what the other person has to say or will not accept their views. This is a way for scholars who disagree to dismiss each other’s arguments with little consideration given.

Brush-off is a slang phrase that can be interpreted as an informal rejection or dismissal of someone’s idea, request, offer, etc. The term is also used to gently dismiss someone without offending them. It can be seen as a way to avoid responsibility for the decision at hand.

The brush-off is a technique of rejection wherein the subject is distracted from their pursuit before they can adequately explain their need. In an educational setting, this technique is most often seen in the form of a teacher’s dismissal of a student’s request before they have even begun to explain it. It may be used as a strategy for deflecting difficult requests, or as a way to intimidate or discourage students from asking for help at all.

BUG

This is an example of a sentence I’m using to answer the question. “Can you bug me later?”

“Bugging” someone refers to pestering, harassing, or annoying them often or continuously. To “bug someone” or “bugging someone” is to subject them to repeated harassment until they are driven crazy by the annoyance.

Bother someone is an expression of discontent about the interference in one’s personal space. This can be accomplished by talking to them, incessantly messaging them, or by standing too close to the person while they are trying to get work done. The intention of this behavior is not to irritate the individual but rather to disrupt their focus.

Bugging someone is the act of harassing or annoying someone by repeatedly bothering them, typically with calls to their office phone, text messages, social media posts, phone calls, or emails. The constant annoyance can cause stress for the person being bugged.
There is no explicit law against this behavior in most states. However, in some states like Vermont and California, it is illegal to bug someone in their own home.

It is not uncommon for people to feel intimidated or pestered by others. Anyone can be bugged at any time, and it is the responsibility of the person being bugged to put an end to the person’s continuous pestering. This can be done by telling them that they are bugging you and that they need to stop or else you will tell somebody like a teacher or friend that they need to help you.

BULL IN A CHINA SHOP

A bull in a china shop is someone who is clumsy or destructive. This phrase is derived from the idea that a bull crashing into a china shop would cause a lot of destruction.

A bull in a china shop is a figure of speech that represents what happens when someone acts carelessly and leaves devastation in their wake. This notion comes from the idea that bulls are clumsy and break many things because of this. It can also be used to characterize people who don’t know how to move around items without breaking them.

A “bull in the china shop” is an idiom that describes someone who acts recklessly, typically with disregard to others or their property. This term has its origins in the metaphor of a bull who accidentally breaks things inside a store just as one would break delicate items inside a china shop. It can be used to describe people or animals that are highly energetic and accident prone.

The phrase “bull in a china shop” is an idiom describing a person who acts recklessly, causing damage. It is not clear where this idiom came from, but it might have come from the idea that bulls are large animals and when they get inside of a china shop, their sheer size makes them knock over many fragile ornaments and shatter them to pieces.