Select the idiom that best fits the meaning implied in the given sentence:-
During the meeting, her casual and thoughtless remarks deeply annoyed and irritated her colleagues.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → rub someone up the wrong way
To rub someone up the wrong way means to annoy or irritate someone, often without meaning to, by what one says or does. It comes from stroking a cat's fur against its natural direction, which the cat dislikes. Her casual, thoughtless remarks annoyed and irritated her colleagues, so this idiom fits the sentence.
Example: His habit of interrupting others rubs everyone up the wrong way.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: keep someone at bay — Incorrect. To keep someone at bay means to keep someone at a distance so that he cannot come close or cause harm; the sentence is about annoying people, not keeping them away.
Example: She lit a fire to keep the wild animals at bay.
Option 3: have it out with someone — Incorrect. To have it out with someone means to settle a disagreement by an open, often angry, talk. Nobody in the sentence confronts anyone; the colleagues are only annoyed.
Example: I finally had it out with my roommate about the noise.
Option 4: be at loggerheads with others — Incorrect. To be at loggerheads means to be in a long, strong disagreement with someone. The sentence describes irritation caused by remarks in one meeting, not a lasting quarrel.
Example: The two neighbours have been at loggerheads over the boundary wall for years.