to wave a magic wand
4
5.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
agitar una varita mágica
- In other words, if you could wave a magic wand and have your students line up in any way you want, what would it look like?
- just wave a magic wand
- wave a magic wand and wish
- wave a magic wand and make
If you could wave a magic wand, what would you ask for?
- If you could wave a magic wand, what would you ask for?
- What would be the next actions if if you could wave a magic wand and compel the people in power to take certain next steps?
- What's, what is your dream if Sam Altman could wave a magic wand and have AI be exactly what you hope it will be?
- OK, If you can wave a magic wand and change anything in the real estate industry, what would you change?
- In theory that if you could wave a magic wand, there are all kinds of things you would one would try to do.
- Well, nobody's going to wave a magic wand and say I'm going to cure you being being and throw fairy dust on you.
- And I have found that saying, look, if I could wave a magic wand, when I start with that phrase, I don't then say what I want is this.
- If you could wave a magic wand because you and I both know how much traffic you can drive to your website with e-mail.
Examples
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I do realize it's not as easy to wave a magic wand and have everything look uniform.
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If you could wave a magic wand, what would you ask for?
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OK, If you can wave a magic wand and change anything in the real estate industry, what would you change?
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"We're not going to wave a magic wand and change everything," he said.
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"We cannot just wave a magic wand and get new infrastructure that is independent of fossil fuels."
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What would be the next actions if if you could wave a magic wand and compel the people in power to take certain next steps?
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What people are saying is that Obama can't wave a magic wand and do all of this by himself.
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We need to have realistic expectations from our leaders instead of expecting them to wave a magic wand once in office and cure all that ails us.
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But that's the reality; that's what we get from this program; we can't wave a magic wand and have everything spent in the first two months.
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If I could wave a magic wand, I would instantly make everyone happy.
Synonyms
38
7.4
Use words or actions to make a magical change
6
6.1
To make something much better using skill and new ideas
3
5.5
Make something appear, disappear, or change as if by using a special power
1
7.0
To make something quickly from very little when needed
How Effortless
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'wave' (move the hand) with 'magic wand' (an object used to produce magical effects), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer that it means causing something to happen as if by magic. The metaphorical extension to 'making something happen effortlessly or instantly' is predictable from the parts and is a common cross-linguistic image, so the meaning is transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The idiom wave a magic wand comes from the clear picture of a magician moving a small stick: you wave a magic wand and something changes at once. So, to wave a magic wand means 'to make something happen as if by magic' or 'fix a problem quickly without hard work'.