This mini episode teaches you the expressions “strapped for cash” and “strapped for time.”
Episode 257 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the expressions “strapped for cash” and “strapped for time.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello, everyone. This is Sumin Lee, from South Korea. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 257 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you an interesting expression. And that expression is “strapped for cash.” Strapped for cash.
That’s strapped: s-t-r-a-p-p-e-d, for: f-o-r, cash: c-a-s-h. Strapped for cash.
What does it mean if you are strapped for cash? If you are strapped for cash, that means you don’t have any money, or you don’t have enough money, or you only have a very little bit of money.
Strapped means not having enough of something or having only a very little bit of something. In fact, if you just say strapped as in “I am strapped,” that means “I am strapped for cash. I am strapped for money. I don’t have enough money.”
And there is one other word that we use with strapped for to mean “not having very much of something, or having only a very small amount of something.” And that word is time.
So you can be strapped for cash—or strapped for money—and you can also be strapped for time. That means you don’t have enough time. Or you only have a little bit of time.
Let me give you some example sentences that show how we use the phrases “strapped for cash” and “strapped for time.”
“My friend cannot lend me any money right now because he is strapped for cash.” My friend cannot lend me any money right now because he is strapped for cash. He doesn’t have enough money. He cannot lend me money right now because he doesn’t have any, or he doesn’t have enough money.
And here’s another one:
“I cannot help you paint your apartment because I am strapped for time.” I cannot help you paint your apartment because I am strapped for time. “I don’t have enough time. I am too busy. I don’t have enough time to help you paint your apartment.”
That is “strapped for cash” and “strapped for time.” And these expressions mean that you don’t have something valuable, like money or time, or that you don’t have enough of it.
Outro
This is the end of episode 257 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Sumin recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.