Authority Phrases

Phrases

• 1066 And All That: A Memorable History Of England (W. C. Sellar book)
• A Bouquet Of Barbed Wire (Andrea Newman book)
• A Brief History Of Time (Stephen Hawking book)
• A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens book)
• A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess book and Stanley Kubrick movie)
• A Fatal Inversion (Barbara Vine book)
• A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Future: Twists And Turns, And Lessons Learned (Michael J. Fox book)
• A Journey To The Center Of The Earth (Jules Verne book)
• A Kestrel For A Knave (Barry Hines book)
• A Murder Is Announced (Agatha Christie book)
• A Passage To India (E. M. Forster book and David Lean movie)
• A Perfect Spy (John Le Carre book)
• A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man (James Joyce book)
• A Prayer For Owen Meany (John Irving book)
• A Room With A View (E M Forster book)
• A Short History Of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson book)
• A Short History Of Tractors In Ukrainian (Marina Lewycka book)
• A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams play)
• A Suitable Boy (Vikram Seth book)
• A Tale Of Two Cities (Charles Dickens book)
• A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseine book)
• A Town Like Alice (Nevil Shute book)
• A calming influence
• A person is known by the company he keeps
• A room without books is like a body without a soul (Marcus Tullius Cicero quotation)
• Absolute power corrupts absolutely (quotation by Lord Acton)
• Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall (Spike Milligan book)
• Air Power is Peace Power (Lockheed Aircraft advertising slogan)
• All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye (Christopher Brookmyer book)
• All Quiet On The Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque book and WWII movie)
• All human life is there (News Of The World advertising slogan)
• Always have your nose in a book
• And The Band Played On (Randy Shilts book)
• And Then There Were None (Agatha Christie book)
• Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt book)
• Animal Farm (George Orwell book)
• Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy book)
• Anne Of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery book)
• Appeal to Caesar
• Around The World In Eighty Days (Jules Verne book)
• Art Of War (Sun Tzu book)
• As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner book)
• As many chins as a Chinese phone book
• Balance of power
• Beat someone black and blue
• Bell, book and candle
• Bible basher
• Big fish in a small pool (someone considered influential compared to their less significant peers)
• Bite someone's head off
• Black Beauty (Anna Sewell book)
• Black power
• Bleak House (Charles Dickens book)
• Bleed someone dry
• Bleed someone white
• Bless my soul
• Blow someone away
• Boat person
• Body and soul
• Body painting (a form of painting that uses the human body as a canvas)
• Bonus genius (a good spirit accompanying and supporting someone)
• Book him
• Book him Danno (A catchphrase from Hawaii Five-O)
• Book learning
• Book worm
• Bore the pants off someone
• Brave New World (Aldous Huxley book)
• Breakfast At Tiffany's (Truman Capote book)
• Breakfast Of Champions (Kurt Vonnegut book)
• Brevity is the soul of wit
• Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh book)
• Bright Lights, Big City (Jay Mcinerney book)
• Bring to book
• Brought to book
• Build A Better Life By Stealing Office Supplies (Dilbert)
• Bump into someone
• Bust someone's ass
• Buttonhole someone
• By the book
• Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Louis de Bernieres book)
• Captain Underpants And The Invasion Of The Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies From Outer Space (Dav Pilkey book)
• Captain Underpants And The Perilous Plot Of Professor Poopypants (Dav Pilkey book)
• Captain Underpants And The Wrath Of The Wicked Wedgie Woman (Dav Pilkey book)
• Cat person
• Catch 22 (Joseph Heller book)
• Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl book)
• Chew someone's ass
• Circle of influence
• Close enough for government work
• Closed book
• Cloud Atlas (David Mitchell book)
• Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons book)
• Come down on someone like a ton of bricks
• Command and control
• Confession is good for the soul
• Control freak
• Cost control
• Crack a book
• Crime And Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky book)
• Crooked House (Agatha Christie book)
• Crowd control
• Cruise control
• Cut someone dead
• Cut someone down in their prime
• Cut someone down to size
• Dance on someone's grave
• Dance to someone's tune
• David Copperfield (Charles Dickens book)
• Dead Man Walking (Helen Prejean book)
• Dead white European male (derogatory reference to someone who has an unjustified reputation)
• Death On The Nile (Agatha Christie book)
• Death On The Orient Express (Agatha Christie book)
• Did Somebody Say McDonald's? (McDonald's advertising slogan)
• Displaced person
• Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (Philip K. Dick book)
• Do yourself a power of good
• Don't just book it, Thomas Cook it (Thomas Cook advertising slogan)
• Don't you just love being in control? (British Gas advertising slogan)
• Draw someone's fire
• Drive someone into a corner
• Drop someone off
• Dump on someone
• Eat out of someone's hand
• Eat someone alive
• Eats, Shoots And Leaves (Lynne Truss book)
• Even Cowgirls Get The Blues (Tom Robbins book)
• Evening person
• Every trick in the book
• Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask (David Reuben book)
• Evil Under The Sun (Agatha Christie book)
• Exert one's authority
• Eye someone up and down
• Far From The Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy book)
• Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (Hunter S. Thompson book)
• Feel someone up
• Feel someone's collar
• Fifty Shades of Grey (E L James book)
• Fight the power
• Figure painting (a form of painting in which the human body is the subject)
• First Among Equals (Jeffrey Archer book)
• First among equals (the most senior person in a group of equal rank)
• Flip someone the bird
• Flower power
• Free hand
• Freeze someone out
• From on high
• Fuel for the Soul (Pontiac advertising slogan)
• Get into someone's pants
• Get no change out of someone
• Girl power
• Give someone a bell
• Give someone a bloody nose
• Give someone a boost
• Give someone a good talking to
• Give someone a rocket
• Give someone a thick ear
• Give someone a wide berth
• Give someone an earful
• Give someone hell
• Give someone skin
• Give someone the boot
• Give someone the brush-off
• Give someone the mushroom treatment
• Give someone the slip
• Give someone the willys
• Give someone what for
• Go by the book
• God rest his soul
• Goodnight Mister Tom book by Michelle Magorian
• Gotta Serve Somebody (Bob Dylan song)
• Government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem (Political slogan)
• Grass someone up
• Great Expectations (Charles Dickens book)
• Grey power
• Guards! Guards! (Terry Pratchett book)
• Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (J. K. Rowling book)
• Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban (J. K. Rowling book)
• Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (J. K. Rowling book)
• Have someone on toast
• Have someone's ear
• Have you any last requests? (humorous question asked as though a person was about to be killed)
• Heap coals of fire on someone's head
• Hear someone out
• Heart and soul
• Heavy hitter (A baseball expression meaning a powerful or commanding person)
• Hey, Soul Sister (Train song)
• High roller (someone who gambles for high stakes)
• His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman book)
• His life's an open book
• His word is law
• Hit the bricks (a cursory slang term telling someone to leave)
• Hope springs eternal in the human breast (from a poem by Alexander Pope)
• How To Win Friends And Influence People (Dale Carnegie book)
• Human Rights Act
• Human condition
• Human error
• Human kind cannot bear very much reality (from a poem by Eliot)
• Human nature
• Human resources
• Human rights
• I Capture The Castle (Dodie Smith book)
• I Want Somebody To Love (The Beatles song)
• I can read you like a book
• I got punky power (A catchphrase from Punky Brewster)
• I have it on good authority
• I have the power! (A catchphrase from He-Man In Masters Of The Universe)
• I'm from the government, and I'm here to help
• I'm in charge (A catchphrase from Bruce Forsyth)
• I'm only human
• If you want to impress someone, put him on your Black list (Johnny Walker Black Whiskey advertising slogan)
• In person
• In someone's bad books
• Individual streak
• Invest with power
• Invite someone over
• It doesn't matter who you vote for, the government always gets in
• It's a dirty job, but somebody has to do it (A catchphrase from Nick Stone In Tightrope)
• It's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt
• Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte book)
• Jog someone's elbow
• Jump someone's bones
• Kane And Abel (Jeffrey Archer book)
• Keep body and soul together
• Keep someone sweet
• Kept in your place
• Know someone in the biblical sense
• Knowledge is power
• Kow-tow to
• Lay a trip on someone

• Lead someone to the altar
• Leading authority
• Leave someone cold
• Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos De Laclos book)
• Lick someone's boots
• Life and soul of the party
• Little Women (Louisa May Alcott book)
• Little black book
• Look someone up and down
• Lord Of The Flies (William Golding book)
• Lord Of The Rings (J R R Tolkien book)
• Lose control
• Lost soul
• Make someone happy with a phone call (British Telecom advertising slogan)
• Make someone's toes curl
• Makes you feel human again (Solpadeine advertising slogan)
• Memoirs Of A Geisha (Arthur Golden book)
• Money is power
• More human interest (Washington Mutual advertising slogan)
• More power to your elbow
• Morning person
• Mortal remains
• Mr. Midshipman Easy (Frederick Marryat book)
• My one regret in life is that I am not someone else (Woody Allen line)
• Never judge a book by its cover
• Night Watch (Terry Pratchett book)
• Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell book)
• Northern soul
• Not my type (not a person one is attracted to)
• Notes From The Underground (Fyodor Dostoevsky book)
• Noughts And Crosses (book series by Malorie Blackman)
• Now you're playing with power! (Nintendo Entertainment System advertising slogan)
• Of Human Bondage (Bette Davis movie)
• Of Mice And Men (John Steinbeck book)
• Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he (line from nursery rhyme)
• On The Origin Of Species (Charles Darwin book)
• On The Road (Jack Kerouac book)
• One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez book)
• One for the book
• Only human
• Open book
• Open government
• Out for someone's blood
• Out of control
• Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read (Groucho Marx line)
• People person
• People power
• Permission based marketing
• Person of interest
• Person to person
• Pester power
• Play it by the book
• Pop someone's cherry
• Portion control
• Portrait painting (a form of painting in which the human face is the subject)
• Potty mouth (a foul mouthed person)
• Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely
• Power dressing
• Power is Macintosh (Apple Computer advertising slogan)
• Power lunch
• Power mad
• Power nap
• Power to the people
• Power trip
• Power up
• Power without the price (Atari advertising slogan)
• Pull rank
• Pull someone up short
• Pull the wool over someone's eyes
• Push someone's buttons
• Put someone down
• Put the bite on someone
• Put the fear of God into someone
• Put the fear of death into someone
• Put words into someone's mouth
• Quality control
• Radio control
• Reach out and touch someone (American Telephone & Telegraph advertising slogan)
• Rob someone blind
• Round Ireland With A Fridge (Tony Hawks book)
• Rub someone's nose in it
• Rubber Soul (Beatles album)
• Rubber bullet (a bullet made of rubber or plastic and used for riot control)
• See the back of someone
• Sell someone a dummy
• Sell your soul to the devil
• Shoot someone a line
• Shuffle off this mortal coil
• Sing someone's praises
• Sit on someone's tail
• Snap someone's head off
• Soft power
• Somebody That I Used to Know (Gotye with Kimbra song)
• Somebody To Love (Queen song)
• Somebody somewhere wants a letter from you (British Post Office advertising slogan)
• Someone Like You (Adele song)
• Someone ears are burning
• Someone walked on my grave
• Soul brother
• Soul food
• Soul man
• Soul searching
• Soul sister
• Soul train
• Sphere of influence
• Spiral out of control
• Steal someone's heart
• Steal someone's thunder
• String someone along
• Suck someone dry
• Swallows And Amazons (children's adventure story by Arthur Ransome)
• Take charge
• Take cuts at someone (A baseball expression meaning taking a verbal swing or striking a blow at a reputation)
• Take someone out
• Take someone to law
• Take someone to one side
• Take someone to task
• Take someone to the woodshed
• Take the bread out of someone's mouth
• Talking Book (Stevie Wonder album)
• Teach someone a lesson
• Teach someone a thing or two
• Tell someone where to get off
• Tess Of The D'Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy book)
• The Age Of Reason (Jean Paul Sartre book)
• The Art Of The Deal (Donald Trump slogan and book title)
• The BFG - Big Friendly Giant (Roald Dahl book)
• The Bible Belt
• The Buddha Of Suburbia (Hanif Kureishi book)
• The Catcher in the Rye (J D Salinger book)
• The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas book)
• The Day Of The Jackal (Frederick Forsyth book)
• The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger book)
• The Devil's Dictionary (Ambrose Bierce book)
• The Famous Five (characters in Enid Blyton's series of children's book)
• The French Have A Word For It (Josh Lanyon book)
• The Garden Of Eden (Ernest Hemingway book)
• The Ghost In The Machine (Arthur Koestler book)
• The Go-Between (L. P. Hartley book)
• The God Of Small Things (Arundhati Roy book)
• The Godfather (Mario Puzo book)
• The Godfather of Soul (Pseudonym of singer James Brown)
• The Good Book
• The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald book)
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams book)
• The Hobbit (J R R Tokien book)
• The Hound Of The Baskervilles (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle book)
• The Human Eraser (Nickname of Marvin Webster)
• The Human Highlight Reel (Nickname of Dominique Wilkins)
• The Human Rain Delay (Nickname of Mike Hargrove)
• The Human Termite (Nickname of Joe Interleggi)
• The Human Victory Cigar (Nickname of Darko Milicic)
• The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins book)
• The Hustle (Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony song)
• The Hypochondriac's Guide To Life And Death (Gene Weingarten book)
• The Importance Of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde book)
• The Jungle Book (Disney cartoon movie)
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat And Other Clinical Tales (Oliver Sacks book)
• The Mirror Cracked From Side To Side (Agatha Christie book title)
• The Name Of The Rose (Umberto Eco book)
• The Odyssey (Homer book)
• The Picture Of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde book)
• The Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan book)
• The Princess Diaries (Meg Cabot book)
• The Purloined Letter (Edgar Allan Poe book)
• The Rape Of The Lock (Alexander Pope book)
• The Riddle Of The Sands (Erskine Childers book)
• The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett book)
• The Story Of Tracy Beaker (children's story by Jacqueline Wilson)
• The Tenderness Of Wolves (Stef Penney book)
• The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCollough book)
• The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas book)
• The Wind in the Willows (children's book by Kenneth Grahame)
• The Woman In White (Wilkie Collins book)
• The cat who doesn't act finicky soon loses control of his owner (9 Lives Cat Food advertising slogan)
• The corridors of power
• The empty chair (the perceived absense of someone who is recently deceased)
• The eyes are the windows of the soul
• The human race
• The milk of human kindness
• The most human handset (DiStar advertising slogan)
• The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid (Jane Austen quotation)
• The power and the glory
• The power behind the throne
• The power of dreams (Honda advertising slogan)
• The power to be your best (Apple Computer advertising slogan)
• The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong (quotation from the Bible - Ecclesiastes
• There's not a soul out there, no one to hear my prayer (ABBA lyric)
• Through The Looking Glass, And What Alice Found There (Lewis Carroll book)
• Throw the book at someone
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (John Le Carre book)
• Tip someone off
• Tip someone the wink
• To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer
• Toilet mouth (a foul mouthed person)
• Tour de force (a feat of strength power or skill)
• Toy with someone's affections
• Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson book)
• Treat someone like dirt
• Trifle with someone's affections
• Under the influence
• Unleash the power of the sun (Sunny Delight advertising slogan)
• Use Somebody (Kings of Leon song)
• Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray book)
• Vicky Angel (children's book by Jacqueline Wilson)
• Walk all over someone
• Walk someone off their feet
• War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy book)
• War baby (someone born during the war - especially the illegitimate child of a soldier)
• War criminal (someone who has flouted the Geneva Convention)
• War hero (someone who acted heroically during a war)
• Wardrobe mistress (a person in charge of the costumes of a theatrical company)
• Watership Down (Richard Adams book)
• We Need To Talk About Kevin (Lionel Shriver book)
• We answer to a higher authority (Hebrew National hot dogs advertising slogan)
• We never sleep (Pinkerton's Detective Agency advertising slogan)
• Welfare agency
• When Somebody Loves You (Frank Sinatra song)
• Whoever you vote for the government gets in (Anarchist political slogan)
• Win friends and influence people
• Wind someone up (deliberately draw attention to something that will create agitation)
• Winnie the Pooh (children's book by A A Milne)
• With great power comes great responsibility
• World authority
• World government
• Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte book)
• You can't tell a book by looking at its cover
• You're My Heart, You're My Soul (Modern Talking song)