🗓️ Idiom: Be a Perfectionist (phrase)
💬 Meaning
- To want everything to be perfect and without mistakes.
- To have very high standards for your own work and sometimes for others.
🧠 Example Sentences
- Sarah is a perfectionist and spends hours checking every detail of her reports.
- Being a perfectionist can help you produce quality work, but it can also cause stress.
- He’s such a perfectionist that he rewrites his emails several times before sending them.
🏛️ Origin
The word perfectionist comes from perfection, meaning “complete” or “without fault.” It began to be used in the 17th century to describe people who aim for flawlessness in their beliefs or actions. Today, it often describes workers who push themselves too hard to meet very high standards.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
Maria is ___________; she won’t stop editing her presentation until it’s flawless.
Answer
a perfectionist
2. Choose the correct answer:
A person who “is a perfectionist” usually:
a) Accepts mistakes easily
b) Always wants perfect results
c) Works without checking their work
Answer
b) Always wants perfect results
3. Change the sentence using “be a perfectionist”:
“He always wants his work to be completely perfect.”
Answer
He is a perfectionist and always wants his work to be completely perfect.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
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👉 Idioms for Different Types of Work Styles
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Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
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