现在从下面的四点举例说明：

　　⒈惯用语组成部分的替换，例如：

　　● pull a long face（愁眉苦脸）→pull an unhappy face, 如：

　　“The football coach pulled an unhappy face when his team was defeated.”

　　● a stitch in time saves nine（及时补救）→a word in time saves nine, 如：

　　“The two were going to quarrel, but their friend cut in to appease them. A word in time saves nine.”

　　⒉惯用语组成部分分开，例如： ● get an upper hand（占上风）→“In a debate competition, a quick-witted debater can get an upper cut, if not the upper hand.” ● cannot see the wood for the trees（见树不见林）→“He sees too many trees, but not the whole wood.”

　　⒊惯用语组成部分的扩充，例如： ● put into practice （实行）→put into widespread practice, 如：

　　“David's proposal was well accepted, but no real effort was made to put it into widespread practice.”

　　● keep company （结交朋友）→keep disreputable company, 如：
　　“His business son often dines out and keeps disreputable company.”

　　● come of age（成年）→come of college age, 如：
　　“Even his youngest son has now come of college age.”

　　⒋惯用语组成部分的缩略，例如：

　　● every cloud has a silver lining（一线希望）→silver lining
　　● make a mountain out of molehills（小题大作）→mountains of molehills

　　有些惯用语缩略后引起转化词，如：

　　● call someone names（谩骂某人 ）→name-calling：“You won't command respect if you enjoy name-calling.”
　　● Bury one's head in the sand（对面临的危险闭目不见）→ head-in-sand：“Don't be so foolish as to adopt a head-in-sand attitude.”
　　● live and let live （自己活，也让别人活）→a live-and-let-live policy：“All the countries in the world should adopt a live-and-let-live policy.”
　　● A dog in the manger（占着茅坑不拉屎的人）→a dog-in-the-manger attitude: “As it is wrong to have a dog-in-the-manager attitude, you had better give what you don't want to others instead of holding on to it.”

　　上述例子说明了严谨的惯用语，在特殊情况下，也可以稍微改变，或替换字眼，或拆开组成部分，或扩充词语，或缩略成分，达到灵活运用的目的。