contusion

湊 かなえの小説 "Confessions" を読んでいます。

Mother's body had a single stab wound to the belly and a contusion on the back of the head. They said that she was stabbed with a kitchen knife and then thrown down the stairs.

"contusion" は "stab" ではない傷と思われるので、打撲の跡と推測できますが、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: an injury to part of the body that does not break the skin: There were multiple contusions and abrasions on his face and arm.
・Collins Dictionary: A contusion is a bruise.: She was treated for bruising and contusions.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a bruise: This was the time when defendants received their injuries, consisting chiefly of abrasions and contusions.

"contusion" は "bruise" と同じ意味のようですが、次の辞書に丁寧な説明がありました。

・Vocabulary.com: Contusion is really just a fancy word for a bad bruise. Professional athletes are often benched suffering from contusions. After all, if they're being paid millions, it sounds kinda wimpy to pull them because they're suffering from a...bruise.
A contusion is any damage to the body that doesn't break the skin but ruptures the blood capillaries beneath, resulting in a handsome-looking discoloration. For once, it's a medical term not used widely to describe a broader emotional or psychological state. You could talk about an "emotional contusion," but please, better not to. There are better terms around (see heartbroken, wounded, forlorn, etc.). Your audience will thank you.

buddy up to/with

湊 かなえの小説 "Confessions" を読んでいます。

"Oops, almost forgot. We need to call roll. So I know Naoki's absent--his mom called to say he has a cold--but is everybody else here?" Another bad sign: He was already trying to buddy up to us, calling us by our first names.

"buddy up to" の意味を調べます。

・The American Heritage Dictionary: To become overly friendly or familiar with someone, especially in order to gain his or her favor: The new worker buddied up to the office secretary.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to become friends with someone: He quickly buddied up with Jan's husband.
・Merriam-Webster: to become friendly especially in order to get help or some advantage: businessmen buddying up to politicians in order to get their support

上記にも一例挙げましたが、"buddy up with" の例も多くありました。

pixilation

湊 かなえの小説 "Confessions" を読み始めました。湊 かなえの小説は以前 "Penance" を読みましたが、なかなか良かった記憶があります。最近立て続けに読んだ伊坂幸太郎の小説は私には全く面白くなかったで、この "Confessions" で口直しができることを期待しています。

It's not just your bodies that are growing and changing. I know what you've been up to. I hear the stories. You, Mr. Watanabe, you grew up in a family that owns an electronics shop, and I know you've figured out how to remove most of the pixilation on adult videos.

"pixilation" は画像の "pixel" と関係があるようですが、アダルトビデオの話なのでボカシを意味しているのでしょうか？　辞書を見ます。

"pixilation" でボカシの意味を挙げていたのは次の辞書だけでした。
・Wiktionary: The deliberate obscuring or censoring of part of an image by reducing the resolution, resulting in a blocky blur.

その他の辞書はボカシではない画像処理の意味を載せているものが多数ありました。しかし、動詞の "pixilate" では画像をボカス意味の説明がありました。

・Oxford English Dictionary: pixelate something to show an unclear image on television, consisting of a small number of large pixels, especially in order to hide somebody’s identity
・Collins Dictionary: to blur (a video image) by overlaying it with a grid of squares, usually to disguise the identity of a person

rolled with it

Reader's　Digest ３月４月合併号の記事 "The Craziest Hotel Stay Ever" からの引用です。

Back at the desk, Dobani was calling shuttles and helping customers check out as fast as he could. "I'm telling people, 'Yes, go ahead and leave your keys here on the desk,'" he says.
Customers rolled with it. They happily dug in to the breakfast buffet, apparently unbothered by the fact that they were getting served by a guy in a bright red Atlanta Braves jersey and a young woman in fishnet stockings.

"rolled with" の意味を調べます。次の一つの辞書だけが "roll with" の説明を掲載していました。

・Wiktionary: To handle and accept (something, especially an inconvenience or setback).: We asked him to do his best to roll with all these changes as the company revamps its approach.

他の幾つかの辞書に "roll with the punches" をinformalな慣用句として挙げていました。

・American Heritage Dictionary: Slang: To cope with and withstand adversity, especially by being flexible.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to be able to deal with a series of difficult situations

"rolled with" は "roll with the punches" から発生した表現に違いありません。

chef's kiss

Reader's　Digest ３月４月合併号の記事 "What's the Big Idea" からの引用です。

Ikea furniture parts should be organized by step rather than item. Brilliant! Why isn't all dishware microwave-safe? We have the technology. Public bathroom doors that can be opened with a forearm rather than freshly washed hands? Chef's kiss. If you've got an any idea that makes life easier and better, whether it's an invention that's Shark Tank-ready, or the urban planning solution your town needs most (if only the planning board would listen!), see terms and share your stroke of genius at rd.com/bigidea.

突然の様に出てきた "Chef's kiss" はどんな意味があるのでしょうか？　辞書を見ます。

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a movement in which you put your fingers and thumb together, kiss them, then pull your hand away from your lips as a way of showing that you think that something or someone is perfect or excellent: There are some things that deserve a chef's kiss, like when your friend's outfit looks so good that you have no words.
・Dictionary.com: Chef’s kiss is a gesture and expression meant to show something is perfect or excellent. The gesture is made by pinching the fingers and thumb of one hand together (often in an OK sign), kissing them, and then tossing them dramatically away from the lips. Its tone can be sincere or ironic.
・Wiktionary:
1. A gesture in which the fingers and thumb of one hand are pinched together, kissed, and then blown away, signifying that something is delicious or exquisite.
2. (informal) A thing considered extraordinary of its kind.
3. (Internet slang) Used to express that something is exquisite.

なるほど。そう言われれば、海外のテレビか映画でこの様なジェスチャーを見た覚えがありますね。

philandering

Reader's　Digest ３月４月合併号の記事 "The Ladies' Man in my Backyard" からの引用です。

I noticed him paying regular calls to the row of oaks a few doors down, his mouth full and his feathers a preened electric blue.
Observing the Jay's philandering turned me into a backyard bird watcher. At first, that mostly meant using smartphone apps to identify birds based on their appearance or calls.

"apps" は日本語ではアプリと言いますね。　さてカケス（鳥）の "philandering" とは何でしょう？

・Collins Dictionary: Philandering means having a lot of casual sexual relationships.: She intended to leave her husband because of his philandering.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: the act of having sex with a lot of different partners without becoming emotionally involved with any of them: She was furious at her husband's philandering.
・Merriam-Webster: to have casual or illicit sex with a person or with many people especially : to be sexually unfaithful to one's spouse —usually used of a man: … her philandering brother-in-law; and … the schoolteacher he philanders with.

一生同じ相手とつがいでいると思われていた鳥が（カケスか何か別の鳥かは覚えていない）実は別の雌とも交尾することが判明したと言う自然のドキュメント番組をＢＳで最近みました。そのことですね。

rabbit hole

Reader's　Digest ３月４月合併号の記事 "I Can't Stop" からの引用です。オンラインギャンブルにはまってにっちもさっちもいかなくなった人の話です。

The latest attempt included a link with a promotion: If Jordan signed up, both of them would receive $50 for wagers.
Jordan texted back. "I'm good bro lol. Why you keep trying to give a crack-head crack!?"
Later, he would text, "Trust me man I want to set up an account I just know where that rabbit hole leads me."

"rabbit hole" の意味が分かりません。辞書で分かるでしょうか？

・Oxford English Dictionary: a situation, often a confusing or strange one, from which it is difficult to escape: I started with a simple online search but ended up disappearing down a rabbit hole, going from one weird website to another.
・Collins Dictionary: You can refer to a strange or difficult situation from which it is difficult to escape as a rabbit hole.: I fell into this rabbit hole of folk music from which I have never got out.
・Wiktionary: A bizarre world, where everyday rules do not apply.: These mushrooms will take you down the rabbit hole, man.
Etymology: Extended senses reference Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where Alice travels down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world.
アリスの不思議の国からきた表現でした。

pony up

Kotaro Isakaの小説 "Bullet Train" を読み終えました。余りにもあり得ないメチャクチャと思える列車内での殺人事件で面白いとは思いませんでした。
さて、この数年前から月刊誌なのに、年に2度程2か月を合併する発行になった
Reader's　Digestの今年の３月４月合併号の記事 "We Found a Fix" からの引用です。

Create a "sinking fund" to avoid sinking into debt when large expenses like vacations or home renovations loom, suggests financial expert Dave Ramsey.
...
When it's time to pony up for a vehicle down payment or to fulfill a contractor's invoice, you won't break a sweat.

動詞の "pony up" の意味は想像が付きません。早速辞書を見ます。


・Longman Dictionary: to find or produce a particular amount of money: All investors had to pony up a minimum of $5000.
・Collins Dictionary: If you pony up a sum of money, you pay the money that is needed for something, often unwillingly.: People can't even afford to pony up for movie tickets.
・Vocabulary.com: give reluctantly: Twenty-four hours to pony up the cash, or next time we meet, there’ll be a bullet hole in you.

I saved Yuich's skin a few times

Kotaro Isakaの小説 "Bullet Train" を読んでいます。

'You knew about that? Like father like son, Kimura muses ruefully, but at the same time he knows that it has to stop with Wataru. Hopefully not like grandson too.
'Actually, I saved Yuich's skin a few times,' Shigeru says, sounding somewhat sheepish, not from any suggestion that Kimura is indebted to him, he's just reluctant to tell a parent about their child's bungles.

"saved Yuich's skin" の意味を調べます。 "save one's skin" の項目で次の説明があります。

・Oxford English Dictionary: save your (own) skin/hide/neck: to try to avoid death, punishment, etc., especially by leaving others in an extremely difficult situation
・Wiktionary: To escape without injury.: Boris Johnson has been accused of changing the ministerial code to help “save his skin” ahead of a new Partygate inquiry that could publish more photos and subject him to a public grilling by MPs.
・Merriam-Webster: to save someone : to help someone get out of a dangerous or difficult situation: He doesn't care what happens to us. All he's worried about is saving his own skin/neck.

"skin" の他に "hide"、"neck" が使われることがあるのですね。

up the wall

Kotaro Isakaの小説 "Bullet Train" を読んでいます。

'What's that?'
'I found it in Lemon's jacket pocket.'
'He sure liked Thomas.'
'Enough to drive me up the wall.'
'So what about it?' the Prince asks again, despite himself.

"drive me up the wall" も慣用句でしょう。"up the wall"　の項目で次の説明があります。

・Merriam-Webster: into a state of intense agitation, annoyance, or frustration: The noise drove me up the wall.
・Wiktionary: crazy, mad: Those noisy children are driving me up the wall.
・Longman Dictionary: very angry or annoyed: That noise is driving me up the wall (=making me annoyed).
・Farlex Dictionary of Idioms: In a state of intense frustration, vexation, distress, or anxiety.: I've been up the wall trying to get this problem with my tax bill resolved.