In this mini episode, you will learn the interesting expression “wet blanket.”
Episode 375 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting expression “wet blanket.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello! This is Juhee, from South Korea. You are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 375 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 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. The expression is “wet blanket.” Wet blanket.
That’s wet, w-e-t. Blanket, b-l-a-n-k-e-t. Wet blanket.
I’m sure you have heard each of those words before, wet and blanket. But maybe you have not heard those two words put together to mean something new: wet blanket.
What is a wet blanket? And why do we use this expression to mean that?
Let’s start here: What could you use a wet blanket for? You would not want to wrap a wet blanket around yourself. That sounds very uncomfortable and very awful. But is there anything that you could use a wet blanket for?
What if there was a small fire somewhere? What if there was a small fire and you wanted to put that fire out? I guess you could drop a wet blanket onto the fire. If you dropped a wet blanket onto a fire and maybe pressed it down with your foot, that would put the fire out. If there was a fire and you wanted to put the fire out, a wet blanket could be a good thing to use.
Okay. But is that really how we use this phrase, “wet blanket”? Do we just mean something that can put a fire out?
Well, not really. A wet blanket is a person, or a kind of person. A wet blanket is somebody who often puts out people’s fires. I don’t mean actual, literal fires. What I mean is, a wet blanket is somebody who puts out people’s excitement or enthusiasm or passion for something.
If somebody is very excited about some new idea, a wet blanket is somebody who says, “Oh, that’s not a good idea. That will never work. You can’t do that. Let’s not do that. Let’s do something different.” Or “Let’s do something practical.” A wet blanket is somebody who puts out your excitement, or your enthusiasm, or your passion.
For example, let’s say that in your friend group—your group of close friends—one person has this idea. One of your friends says, “Let’s all go to the beach tomorrow. Doesn’t that sound like fun? We could get up early and be at the beach early and spend all day there. Oh, and there are some great restaurants near the beach. Oh, this is going to be so much fun. What do you think? Do you all want to go to the beach?”
And now imagine that you and some other friends start thinking about that and talking about that. And it sounds like a great idea. That sounds like a lot of fun.
But then, one of your friends says, “I don’t think that’s a very good idea. The restaurants near the beach are very expensive. And it would take us several hours to drive to the beach. No, I don’t think we should do that. Instead, I think we should all just stay home like we usually do and maybe watch a movie on TV together.”
I think you could call that friend a wet blanket. This is somebody who is putting out other people’s excitement and enthusiasm and happiness. They are being boring and too practical. They’re not interested in other people’s excitement. They’re like a wet blanket that puts out a fire.
And that is “wet blanket,” an interesting and useful expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 375 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have anyquestions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Juhee 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. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!