Which of the following idioms means ‘to steal from a shop’?
- (a)Golden opportunity
- (b)Five-finger discount
- (c)Black sheep
- (d)Green thumb
Answer
Why
Correct — B. The idiom is five-finger discount — the 'discount' you give yourself by walking out of a shop with goods in your hand instead of paying for them.
It is slang for shoplifting, and the five fingers are the hand that does the taking.
The other three phrases are about luck, reputation and gardening, and none of them touches theft, so option (b) is the idiom the definition asks for.
Why the others are wrong
- (a)Golden opportunity — A golden opportunity is an unusually good chance that may not come again. It names a piece of luck rather than an act, and carries no suggestion of dishonesty.
- (c)Black sheep — A black sheep is the disgraced or odd member of a family or group. It labels a person's standing, not a specific act such as taking goods from a shop.
- (d)Green thumb — A green thumb is a knack for making plants grow, called green fingers in British usage. It is a compliment about gardening and has nothing to do with shops.
Concept
Idioms are recall, not reasoning: the meaning cannot be built out of the words, so the only real defence is having met the phrase.
Five-finger discount belongs to the body-part family SSC likes — to give someone the cold shoulder, to be all thumbs, to say something tongue in cheek.
When a phrase is new to you, work the frame instead. The question names theft, three options plainly do not, and the unfamiliar one is then the safer mark.
Five-finger discount is informal American slang and would be out of place in formal writing. SSC sets it for recognition, not for use.
Key facts
- Five-finger discount is slang for shoplifting, not for a genuine price cut.
- Black sheep names the disreputable member of a family or group.
- Green thumb in American usage and green fingers in British usage both mean a talent for gardening.
Study next
Common traps
- Picking Black sheep because it is the only other option with a negative ring.
- Reading discount literally and dismissing the phrase as a shopping term.
- Trying to decode an idiom from its parts when no idiom in the set can be decoded that way.
SSC runs idioms in two directions: it gives the phrase in a sentence and asks for the meaning, or gives the meaning and asks for the phrase as here. The same shift uses the first direction at English Q.13 (at her wits' end).
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.