• a sunny smile = a happy and friendly smile. The air hostess greeted the passengers with a sunny smile.
• a stormy relationship = a relationship full of strong and angry feelings. They had a stormy relationship so they decided to get divorced.
• a storm in a teacup = a lot of fuss about something unimportant. That's a storm in a teacup, stop fussing about it, you can do it.
• a storm of protest / criticism = a situation in which people suddenly protest about or criticize something, showing very strong feelings. The government plan to raise the taxes provoked a storm of protest.
• to weather the storm = to experience a difficult period and reach the end of it without being harmed too much. We're undergoing a difficult situation, but I will weather the storm.
• to dance / sing up a storm = do something with energy. The schoolgirls were singing up a storm.
• to be on cloud nine = to be very happy about something. When she realised that she had won the lottery, she was on cloud nine.
• to have one's head in the clouds = to think about something that is unpractical. Come on, you always have your head in the clouds. It's time to get back to reality!
• to be under a cloud (of suspicion) = to be suspected of doing something wrong or illegal. She left the company under a cloud of suspicion.
• a cloud on the horizon = something that might spoil a happy situation. The only cloud on the horizon was the final exam in June.
• every cloud has a silver lining = there is something good even in a difficult or sad situation. See, you lost your job but now you will start working for a better company. Every cloud has a silver lining.
• to flood the market = to produce and a sell a large number of one type of thing, so that its price goes down. They have the intention to flood the market with their new mobile phones.
• to be flooded with something = to receive so many letters or inquiries that you cannot deal with all of them. We've been flooded with letters, but we will try to answer them all.
• in floods of tears = crying a lot. The little girl arrived in floods of tears.
• to shower somebody with something = to give somebody a lot of something. Her family showered her with birthday presents.
• to shower something on / over something = to scatter something on / over a place. Hundreds of leaflets were showered over the streets.
• to rain on somebody's parade = to spoil somebody's plans. I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but you can't enter the park with food.
• to take the wind out of somebody's sails = to make somebody lose their confidence, especially by saying or doing something unexpected. She was ready to tell him that the relationship was over, but he appeared with a big bunch of flowers. That took the wind out of her sails.
• a hail of bullets / stones = a large number of bullets / stones. The tanks were met by a hail of bullets.
• to not have the foggiest idea = to not know something at all. None of us had the foggiest idea about how to use the computer.
• a frosty look / stare / tone = an unfriendly look / stare / tone. I arrived late and the teacher gave me a frosty look.

We thank Ida Sapiains (from Santiago, Chile) for her contribution.

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