together

Birds of a feather flock together.

something that you say which means people who have similar characters or similar interests will often choose to spend time together. I saw the boy who stole my bag with that gang of trouble makers last night - well, birds of a feather flock together, they say.

See also: Bird, feather

get your act together (informal)

to organize your activities so that you do things in an effective way. If these people could ever get their act together, they could produce unbeatable wines. You'd better get your act together and start looking for a job.

See also: act

get it together

1. to manage to organize an activity. We were planning a trip to India, but we never got it together. I wonder if he'll ever get it together to set up his own diving school. (sometimes + to do something)

2. if two people get it together, they start a sexual relationship with each other. We'd met a few times before, but we didn't really get it together till Rachel's party.

get your shit together (taboo!)

to become more organized and effective. He's really got his shit together since he left college.

See also: shit

not have two pennies to rub together (British, American & Australian, American)

to be very poor. She's been out of work for months and doesn't have two pennies to rub together.

See also: penny, rub, two

keep body and soul together

to just be able to pay for the things that you need in order to live. We can barely keep body and soul together on what he earns.

See also: body, keep, soul

put their heads together

if a group of people put their heads together, they think about something in order to get ideas or to solve a problem. If we put our heads together I know we can come up with a design that really works.

See also: head

put two and two together

to guess the truth about a situation from pieces of information which you know about it. I didn't tell her my husband had left, but she'd noticed his car was missing and put two and two together.

See also: two

put two and two together and get/make five

to guess something wrong about a situation, usually something more exciting than the truth. She thought I was pregnant. I was sick a couple of times and she just put two and two together and made five.

See also: five, two

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get your act together

to become better organized. If I'm going on a trip, I usually get my act together the night before so I'm packed and ready to go in the morning. The very fact they keep talking about how they have to get their act together is a bad sign.

See also: act

get it together

to become organized. We would have liked to go to Dallas, but we couldn't get it together to drive there.

piece together something

1. to combine many small details to give a complete description of something. In this account, Rawson tries to piece together the events leading up to the tragedy. I hadn't told anyone about it, though I suppose someone could have pieced it together.

2. to combine small things to make something bigger. Peters pieced together night courses for five years to earn a college degree. We had to piece the money together to pay off our debts.

Etymology: from the idea of combining the parts of something to make a whole

See also: piece

pull yourself together

to get control of your emotions and actions. He's finding it hard to pull himself together after the accident.

See also: pull

pull together

to work as a group, esp. in order to achieve a result. Everyone on our street really pulled together after the fire.

See also: pull

put your heads together

to share ideas in trying to solve a problem. If we can put our heads together we'll figure out a way to deal with this.

See also: head

put two and two together

to understand something by using the information you have. I didn't tell her George had left, but she noticed his car was gone and put two and two together.

See also: two

scrape together something

to gather something that is not easily available, esp. money. He managed to scrape together $20 for the train and came back home. Many immigrants have difficulty scraping enough money together for the application.

Usage notes: also in the form scrape up something: Somehow these families managed to scrape up the tuition fee.

scare up something

See also: scrape

stick together

to support each other. If we all stick together, we can succeed.

See also: stick

throw someone together

to bring people together in a manner that is not planned. The refugees were thrown together in large camps. We'd throw together people from different parts of our lives and have a great big party.

See also: throw

throw something together

to create something quickly without preparation. We came home late and I just threw something together for us to eat. It was one of those low-cost movies that studios often throw together.

See also: throw

together with something

and also something. The cost of food together with drinks and prizes made it an expensive party.