During the Euro 2012 tournament the languagecaster team will be looking at some of the words and phrases that emerge from the competition. Today we explain the phrase ‘to fritter away‘. You can understand more about the word or phrase by listening to the mp3 and reading the transcript below. You can also find many more examples by going to our football phrase page here football cliches here and our huge football glossary here.
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Listen here: fritter.away mp3
Today’s Euro 2012 football word is ‘to fritter away‘. This phrase is made up of the verb to fritter and the adverb away. To fritter means to waste something, such as money or time. In football it is most often used to talk about wasting chances to score goals. To fritter is almost always combined with away, with the noun coming between the two words, as in the Dutch frittered their chances away against Denmark, or after the phrase, for example, the Dutch frittered away their chances against Denmark. To fritter away.
Example: (The Guardian, UK) Michael Krohn-Dehli scored the only goal as the Dutch frittered away a host of chances.
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