free rein

每日一詞---free rein

今天要看的是free rein，而rein就是指勒馬的韁繩。所以這個片語就是指「讓人隨心所欲」、「為所欲為」。我們來看看English Baby的介紹吧，順便瞥瞥本人的翻譯 =]

Have you ever gone horseback riding? Most people use equipment to help keep themselves, and their horse, safe. There’s the saddle to give you a comfortable place to sit, and the bridle to give you a place to attach the reins. The reins are straps that you can pull on to get your horse to stop. When you let the reins go loose, the horse continues forward until you pull on the reins again. 
你騎過馬嗎？大部分的人都會用馬具來保持自己和馬兒的安全。馬鞍能讓人坐得舒服，轡頭能接上韁繩，好讓人駕馭；如果要馬兒停步，可以拉拉韁繩。但如果放鬆韁繩，馬兒就會直直前進，到你再次拉住韁繩才停止。

To give free rein, then, is to allow someone or something to continue without your trying to stop it. You might not even be able to stop it if you tried. For example, a mother might tell her son that he has to keep his toys neat in most of the rooms of the house, but he can have free rein over his bedroom. Or you might say that the swim team uses the pool until six o’clock, but the public has free rein after that.
所以囉，free rein的意思就是把某人或某事放水流(對不起我暫時想不到恰當的詞xD)，不予以干涉；且就算你想阻止，可能也起不了作用。比如，一位媽媽可以要她的小孩不在其他房間亂丟玩具，卻管不了他在自己房間亂搞。另一個例子，假設某個游泳隊要在泳池練到六點，但其他人可以在六點之後使用。



那，來看些句子吧：

When my husband’s away, I have free rein over the house and can leave my stuff wherever I want.我先生不在時，我想怎樣就怎樣，可以把東西丟在想丟的地方。

I’ll let you make dinner, if you give me free rein over dessert.我會讓你做晚餐，但前提是你不能管我弄怎樣的甜點。