to have someone in your power

to know secret or damaging information about someone:

If a situation heats up, it becomes more extreme:

If a machine or system shuts off, or if someone or something shuts it off, it stops operating:

to mention someone or something in a brief or indirect way:

to work very hard using or doing something:

to say something forcefully and repeatedly to someone so that they remember it:

to change something into something else:

to stop working, usually at the end of the day:

If you bounce something off someone, you tell someone about an idea or plan in order to find out what they think of it:

to lead someone around a place that they are visiting in a formal or official way, while telling them about it:

to go with someone to all parts, or the main parts, of a place that they have not visited before, so that they can see what it is like or learn about it:

to speak or write about something in detail or in more detail:

to tell someone what to do:

If a story or situation hinges on an idea or subject, it develops from that idea or that is the most important subject in it:

to tell someone what to do:

If you punt on something, you decide not to do or include it:

If a group of people descend on a place or person, they arrive, usually without warning or without being invited:

to make problems, difficulties, or disagreements less serious or easier to solve, usually by talking to the people involved:

to agree to what someone wants, especially because you are under pressure or under someones control: