phrase have a heart—1. (usually imper.) be understanding and sympathetic; be reasonable: Have a heart ! I can’t possibly get through that amount of work in such a short time. 2. (usually negat.) be cruel or courageous enough to do smth. (also: have the heart): When I got back, I felt better, but I didn’t have a heart to tell him to go home. lose one’s heart—fall in love with a person: He wanted to buy a house before they got married, but while she was waiting she lost her heart to another man. lose hold of someone • lose hold over someone lose hold of someone—(also: lose one’s hold of someone) 1. be no longer able to physically grasp or hold a person: After a struggle at midfield, Davis lost hold of Barrington, who then scored to win the game. 2. lose power or control over a person: He lost hold of her, and she moved to Capri, never to return again to his life. lose hold over someone—(also: lose one’s hold over someone) = lose hold of someone 2: It is no matter to him that he loses his hold over his children and his erstwhile fiancée. lose one’s head • lose one’s mind lose one’s head—1. lose one’s presence of mind; become con- fused: Don’t lose your head and start the car in gear. Take things quietly, put the lever in neutral…. 2. become emotion- ally attached to a person: She is at the age that she loses her head over every other boy she meets. lose one’s mind—lose one’s mental faculties; go crazy: Robert lost his mind and was committed to an insane asylum. lose one’s marbles • pick up one’s marbles lose one’s marbles—(coll.) go out of one’s mind; start acting in a strange way: I may be old, but I haven’t lost my marbles yet. Cf.: have all one’s marbles—(coll.) be sensible; be in one’s right mind: Do men who have got all their marbles go swim- ming in lakes with their clothes on? pick up one’s marbles—(U.S. coll.) leave an activity one has been involved in with other people: If you don’t like the way we do things around here, well, you can pick up your marbles and leave. lose one’s touch with someone • lose touch with someone lose one’s touch with someone—lose one’s ability to handle a person: I seem to have lost my touch with my children. They won’t mind me anymore. lose touch with someone—cease to be in contact with smb.: Politicians have become so absorbed in their own war-games that they have lost touch with the wider world. lose one’s way • lose way lose one’s way—1. cease to follow the right track; become lost: The children lost their way in the dark and did no reach home. 2. be unable to find the right road in life: You seem to me like one who has lost his way and made a great error in life. Note: The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the phrase win one’s way—succeed in following one’s course despite obstacles: The young fellow who will devote himself to agri- culture may do even better than the youth who wins his way to the black-coated servitude of a bank. lose way—(Nautical) lose speed: The wind failed and dropped to nothing, the dinghy lost way and drifted towards three lighters moored abreast. lose out on something • lose out to something lose out on something—suffer a loss or disadvantage in smth.: Sitting in the hotel the next day, I realize now that I lost out on the deal. lose out to something—be overcome or replaced by smth.; lose a competition: The popular press, uncertain of its role, lost out to the heavies and the provincials. lost in something • lost to something lost in something —deeply occupied in thought or filled with an emotion: He seemed to be lost in the contemplation of something great. lost to something—no longer affected by some good influ- ence: He is able to detect those whom he may trust from those who are hopelessly lost to all sense of honor. lost on someone • lost to someone lost on someone—(of humor, sarcasm, etc.) having no effect upon a person: The real humor of the situation was lost upon the House of Commons. lost to someone—no longer possessed by or accessible to a person: I had no skills to rely on and what training I once had, was lost to me at that moment. love game • love play love game—a game in which the loser scores no points: Holt’s spirit was pretty well broken and Amy slammed his serves over almost unchallenged and won a love game . love play—caressing; amorous attentions: Adult heterosex- uality presents fewer problems where early love play is toler- ated than where it is suppressed. See also: play a love game / play for love. love seat (UK) • love seat (U.S.) love seat (UK)—a seat or bench which accommodates two people facing in opposite directions: The term “love seat ” more often refers to a curious S-shaped two-seater, with the sitters facing opposite directions (paradoxically). I’ve never heard of a standard two-seater couch called a “love seat”… love seat (U.S.)—a small sofa or couch designed for two occupants: The original master bedroom of the mansion offers a large room with canopy bed, sitting area and love seat facing the fireplace. low-brow • low-browed low-brow—1. (of people) not highly intellectual or aesthet- ically refined: Their desired crowd is not unlike themselves, being low-brow people who want to see a rock band that plays loud, fast and powerful. 2. (of things) unsophisticated and not requiring intellectual effort to be understood: I play video games, read lowbrow books and tons of comics. low-browed —1. (of a building, doorway, etc.) having a low entrance: In the face of this rock there appeared something like the entrance of a low-browed cavern. 2. = low-brow 1.: The media must think the American public is a bunch of low- browed morons who “rush to the mall” and buy whatever is placed in front of them. low house • lower house low house—said of a place that is not socially or morally “respectable”: He took to drinking and frequented low houses of Irish raff. lower house—lower chamber of parliament (the House of Representatives in the USA or the House of Commons in Great Britain): Robert Kelly sponsored the bill in the lower house and told everyone how great it was. low man • low man on the totem pole low man—1. (also: short man) a man of short stature: Mr. Swan was a low man with short legs…. He was very strict in some respects, never sparing the rod. 2. a man without prin- ciples or morals: Mrs. Young says he is such a low man he should not dine with her daughter. 3. smb. who has the least – 225 – low man