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.rob the cradle Fig.to marry or date someone who is much youngerthan oneself.Uncle Bill who is nearly 80 married a 30-year-old woman.That is really robbing the cradle.rock the boat Fig.to cause trouble where none is welcome; to dis-turb a situation that is otherwise stable and satisfactory.(Oftennegative.) Look, Tom, everything is going fine here.Don t rockthe boat! You can depend on Tom to mess things up by rockingthe boat.a rocky road Fig.a difficult period of time.Bob s been goingdown quite a rocky road since his divorce.Life is a rocky road.roll over and play dead Fig.to just give up and be unable to copewith life or a problem.Why can t I complain about this? Am Isupposed to roll over and play dead?romp through sth Fig.to perform something fast and playfully.The conductor romped through the slow movement of the sym-phony as if it were a march.room and board Fig.food to eat and a place to live; the cost offood and lodging.That college charges too much for room andboard.a rotten apple Inf.a single bad person or thing.(Sometimes thereis the implication that the rot will spread to others, as with theone rotten apple that spoils the rest in the barrel.) There alwaysis a rotten apple to spoil it for the rest of us.Leave it to one rot-ten apple to bring down the conversation to the basest level.rotten to the core Fig.really bad; corrupt.That lousy punk isrotten to the core.a rounding error Fig.a large amount of money that is relativelysmall in comparison to a much larger sum.To a large company174 run a taut shiplike Smith & Co., a few thousand dollars is just a rounding error.It s not a lot at all.a royal pain Fig.a great annoyance.This guy s a royal pain, butwe have to put up with him because he s the boss.the royal treatment very good treatment; very good and thought-ful care of a person.I really got the royal treatment when Istayed at that expensive hotel.rub elbows (with so) and rub shoulders with so Fig.to associ-ate with someone; to work closely with someone.(No physicalcontact is involved.) I don t care to rub elbows with someone whoacts like that!rub salt in a wound Fig.to deliberately make someone s unhap-piness, shame, or misfortune worse.Don t rub salt in the woundby telling me how enjoyable the party was.rub shoulders with so Go to rub elbows (with so).ruffle so s feathers Fig.to irritate or annoy someone.(As a birdmight expand its feathers out.) I didn t mean to ruffle his feath-ers.I just thought that I would remind him of what he promisedus.a rule of thumb Fig.a general principle developed through expe-riential rather than scientific means.As a rule of thumb, I movemy houseplants outside in May.rule the roost Fig.to be the boss or manager, especially at home.Who rules the roost at your house?rule with a velvet glove Fig.to rule in a very gentle way.Sherules with a velvet glove, but she gets things done, nonetheless.rule with an iron fist Fig.to rule in a very stern manner.Thedictator ruled with an iron fist and terrified the citizens.run a taut ship Go to run a tight ship.175 run a tight shiprun a tight ship and run a taut ship Fig.to run a ship or an orga-nization in an orderly and disciplined manner.(Taut and tightmean the same thing.Taut is correct nautical use.Whereas tautmay well refer to a sailing ship s rigging being pulled tightly, itusually characterizes the discipline and cooperation among thecrew.) The new office manager really runs a tight ship.Cap-tain Jones is known for running a taut ship.run (around) in circles Go to next.run around like a chicken with its head cut off and run(around) in circles Fig.to run around frantically and aimlessly;to be in a state of chaos.(Fig.on a chicken that continues to runaround aimlessly after its head has been chopped off.) I spentall afternoon running around like a chicken with its head cut off.run in the family Fig.[for a characteristic] to appear in many (orall) members of a family.My grandparents lived well into their90s, and it runs in the family.run like clockwork Fig.to run very well; to progress very well.I want this office to run like clockwork with everything on timeand everything done right.run on all cylinders 1.Fig.[for an engine] to run well andsmoothly.This car is now running on all cylinders, thanks tothe tune-up.2.Fig.to function well or energetically.(Fig.on.) Our department seems to be running on all cylinders.!Congratulations.run rampant Fig.to run, develop, or grow out of control
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