Click below to listen to the phrase.
Choose the correct definition a, b or c.
a) out of nowhere
Well done ! That’s the right answer.
If something appears or is made out of thin air, it suddenly and mysteriously appears from nowhere or is made out of nothing.
French translation
comme par magie, sorti d’un chapeau, fabriqué de toutes pièces
How NOT to translate : *à partir d’air mince
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Examples in context
‘Lasers Could Generate Shields Out Of Thin Air
Lasers could turn Earth’s atmosphere into a defensive, or offensive, tool in the future of warfare.
Proposed by BAE Systems, a defense and aerospace company founded in the United Kingdom, the conceptual Laser Developed Atmospheric Lens (LDAL) would use lasers to ionize and heat the atmosphere in a way that temporarily endows small pockets of it with useful characteristics. This could take the form of an aerial lens used to magnify objects far away, or even a kind of refractive shield to scatter incoming enemy laser beams.’
Discover, 17 Jan. 2017
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‘Millions of private pensions ’riddled with errors’ - is yours ?
Pension savers in their 50s and early 60s should check the value of their pensions, experts are warning, as widespread “erroneous records” mean there is a high chance of miscalculation.
Last week this newspaper revealed an astonishing case in which Aviva, Britain’s biggest pension firm, admitted to plucking the value of a customer’s pension out of thin air – as it lacked the information on which to calculate a correct value.’
The Telegraph , 28 Feb. 2016
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Everyday usage
You just made that excuse up out of thin air.
I can’t come up with €10,000 out of thin air.
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