thumbscrew of expectation
- noun
- Informal
:
presión de las expectativas
- Many students feel the thumbscrew of expectation from their families during exam season.
Examples
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The thumbscrew of expectation tightened as the deadline approached.
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He struggled under the thumbscrew of expectation at his new job.
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The thumbscrew of expectation tightened as the deadline approached.
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She felt the thumbscrews of expectation from her parents to succeed.
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She felt the thumbscrew of expectation press down on her as she prepared for the important presentation.
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Many young athletes experience the thumbscrew of expectation from their coaches and families to perform well.
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The constant thumbscrew of expectation from her peers made it difficult for her to enjoy her creative pursuits.
Synonyms
∞
3.1
A strong feeling of stress from difficult demands
A feeling of being held back by what other people expect you to do
A situation where people feel trapped by what others think they should do
How Pressured
Surface Forms
Morphology
thumbscrew + of + expectation
This phrase uses the literal image of a 'thumbscrew' (a device that applies crushing pressure) applied metaphorically to 'expectation' via the preposition 'of', so the overall meaning is 'pressure or stress caused by expectations'. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words can plausibly infer this figurative sense, but because it relies on a transferred metaphor rather than a directly compositional meaning it is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Thumbscrew of expectation uses the image of a thumbscrew, a small tool tightened to squeeze and hurt a person's thumb, while expectation stands for other people's hopes closing in. So it means the 'pressure' or 'stress' someone feels when others expect a lot from them.