on the pill
20
6.1
- idiom
:
tomar la píldora anticonceptiva
- So when I'm not on the pill, I have bad skin.
- go on the pill
- get on the pill
- women on the pill
Yeah, if they say now I'm on the pill, don't believe them.
- Yeah, if they say now I'm on the pill, don't believe them.
- If you say you're on the pill and you're not, that's my question.
- And ever since I have been on the pill and it seems to work for me.
- The way I cleared up my, you know, teenage acne was by going on the pill.
- So my GP suggested that I could try going on the pill.
Examples
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I'm on the pill.
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Are you on the pill or something?
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And ever since I have been on the pill and it seems to work for me.
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I should get on the pill anyway.
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Heard you went on the pill.
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I thought you were on the pill.
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Now we're both on the pill!
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Are you on the pill?
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I still get it and realize I always have when I think back to before I went on the pill at 16.
Blog text (2) -
She decided to start taking the pill to manage her health.
Surface Forms
Morphology
on + the + pill
The expression combines 'on' (a usual marker for being under a medication) with 'pill' (a tablet), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it means regularly taking a pill. However, the conventionalized sense 'the pill' = oral contraceptive (birth control) is a collocational and cultural meaning that is not fully predictable from the parts, so full understanding may require prior exposure.
Etymology
On the pill comes from women taking a small daily medicine called the pill to prevent pregnancy. Saying someone is on this medicine shows regular use, so on the pill means 'taking a medicine to prevent pregnancy'.