We've found 11 phrases for ratel (0.162 seconds):

a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down »    An otherwise unpleasant situation can be pleasant when a pleasant aspect is deliberately introduced.1999, Eli Yassif, The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning, Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253335833, page 372,One is known as the "sweetening parable," that is to say a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. Thus, when the aim is to preach to the people, to guide them along the "bitter," arduous path of upholding burdensome precepts and prohibitions, a tale can lighten the load, make the "medicine" easier "to swallow."2001, Maureen Reagan, First Father, First Daughter: A Memoir, Little, Brown, ISBN 0316736368, page 319,It put some fun into the tedious business of preparing for a presidential debate. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, right?2004, John Hoover, How to Work for an Idiot: Survive & Thrive... Without Killing Your Boss, Career Press, ISBN 1564147045, page 11,If a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, a barrel of laughs can wash down the big pills you might need to swallow.

get someone's back up »    To annoy a person either deliberately or inadvertently.

make a virtue of necessity »    To make the best of a difficult situation; to recast or portray an action or situation in which one has no alternatives as an action or situation which was deliberately chosen on its merits.

on purpose »    Purposefully; with intention; deliberately.

put someone's back up »    To annoy someone deliberately.

put words in somebody's mouth »    To attribute to somebody something he or she did not say; to claim inaccurately that somebody said or intended something.

rumor campaign »    A method of persuasion in which damaging rumors or innuendo are deliberately spread concerning a person or other target, while the source of the rumors tries to avoid detection.

shoot oneself in the foot »    To deliberately sabotage an activity in order to avoid obligation, though it causes personal suffering. Origins in first world war trench warfare.

take out of context »    To interpret something in a manner in which it was not intended to be understood, often deliberately.

turn a blind eye »    To ignore or deliberately overlook, especially with respect to something unpleasant or improper.

whisper campaign »    A method of persuasion in which damaging rumors or innuendo are deliberately spread concerning a person or other target, while the source of the rumors tries to avoid detection.

New:  We also know Zip Codes FYI!