Are you scattered to the four winds now?

Today’s English
July 15th, 2017

Everything including life has a beginning with an inbuilt end. People or things being with you now will no longer be with you one day.  Either you part with or get rid of someone or something in the long run and today’s English is how to deal with such situations.

When you are no longer in contact with or far away from your friends, colleagues, relatives and neighbours with whom you were close once, in English, it is said that all of you are scattered to the four winds.

1. We were actually close friends during our college days but now we are scattered to the four winds.
2. Well, the day has come. All of us know very well that we are going to be scattered to the four winds soon.

If you want to get rid of something because you think that they are useless or troublesome to you, you can use the expression “to do away with it“ or “have done with it".

1. It’s time. You have to do away with these things. (=you have to get rid of …)
2. I have decided to sell off all these things on OLX and have done with it.
3. How could you do away with your car that you loved very much?

There are three phrasal verbs – cast off, cast away and cast aside which all mean “to get rid of somebody or something.

1. You must cast aside all your ego and work friendly with others.
2. It’s time, we have to find out how to cast away these barriers on our way.
3. It has entered my blood and flesh and how can I cast off this profession?

If you remove somebody from their job for something wrong they have done or for saving the cost of employing them, you can use “fire out somebody” rather than “dismiss” because the latter means only “sending away for the wrongs of the employee” and not other reasons. On the other hand, the phrase “termination of employment” means “to put an end to the agreement between the employee and the employer" rather than dismissal by the employer.

1. As soon as the new management took charge of the company, nearly 500 employees were fired out.
2. He was dismissed for his misappropriation of the fund.
3. You should give three months' notice of termination of employment.
4. Any violation of the rules and regulations will result in termination of the contract.

“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.”
- Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray”