to give in: to surrender, to stop resisting Examples of TO GIVE IN Completely surrounded by our soldiers, the enemy finally gave in. Management gave in to the strikers’ demands and agreed to a shortened work week.

on one’s toes: alert, cautiousThis idiom is usually used with the verbs stay and keep. Examples of ON ONE’S TOES So, city leaders will have to stay on their toes to deal with the demand, the mayor said. It makes folks stay on their toes.

to take place: to occur, to happen according to plan Examples of TAKE PLACE The organization’s rules mandate that the conference has to take place in a new country every year. Jamie was frantic when he thought that the hearing was going to take place at 9:00, but it was really at 11:00.

to knock one self out: to work very hard (sometimes too hard) to do somethingA reflexive pronoun must divide the idiom. Examples of TO KNOCK ONE SELF OUT She really knocked herself out trying to pass that difficult class. Don’t knock yourself out during practice. Save your strength for the competition later.

at first: at the beginning, originally Examples of AT FIRST At first, I didn’t know what to think about Jamie, but now I think she’s pretty cool. She consulted, at first, with a general practitioner, but then she decided to see a specialist.

to hold up: to delay, to make late; to remain high in quality Examples of TO HOLD UP The incident also prompted a pushing match and play was held up for six minutes. We didn’t score like 130 points, 140 points, but we really held up our opponent.