nature of the beast
4
6.0
- idiom
:
la naturaleza de la bestia
- Change is generally incremental and that is just the nature of the beast when one is working with these big energy systems.
- just the nature of the beast
- simply be the nature of the beast
That is understanding the true nature of the beast.
- That is understanding the true nature of the beast.
- And it's just, this is just the nature of the beast.
- Change is generally incremental and that is just the nature of the beast when one is working with these big energy systems.
- And that isn't that's, that's, that's, that's the nature of the beast.
- But look, don't get me wrong, it's always going to be competition and that's just that's just in nature of the beast.
- And we are already very late in the season because the nature of the beast here is that the lake we are on Lake Huron.
Examples
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In the world of politics, backstabbing is often the nature of the beast.
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It is very disappointing, but my guess is that it is the nature of the beast.
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And if that is the nature of the beast, how has it always been done?
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The nature of the beast is that wars cost money.
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The very nature of the beast that is reality TV is that no element of your life is off limits.
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For if we do not determine the nature of the beast before we set it free, it will end by consuming us all.
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If this all seems very tedious, that is the nature of the beast.
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That's the nature of the beast these days, and everyone understands it.
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Survivalists understand this and are willing to take personal risks in order to uncover the nature of the beast for anyone willing to listen.
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Anti-intellectualism always leads to oppression (and worse), and if we don't understand the nature of the beast, we will not successfully contend against it.
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How Inherent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The word 'nature' clearly signals 'essential qualities', so part of the meaning is recoverable from the constituents; however 'beast' is used metaphorically to refer to a situation or system rather than a literal animal. This figurative extension means the full idiomatic sense ('inherent, often unpleasant characteristics of a situation') is not fully predictable from the words alone, so a B1 learner may need prior exposure to grasp it.
Etymology
Nature of the beast comes from the idea of a wild animal: a beast has a usual way of acting—its nature—that you cannot change. So today people use it to mean the 'basic' or 'difficult' features of a situation or person that you must accept.