mug it
v. phr.— «La Russa knew it would have haunted him the rest of his life if the Cardinals, in his colorful euphemism, “mugged it.” “It was just concern we were going to be part of history in the worst kind of way,” La Russa said. “We went through a serious period where we were having trouble getting wins.”» —“Cardinals Hope to End Series Drought” by R.B. Fallstrom Forbes.com Oct. 19, 2006. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
If something pales in comparison to something else, the reference is to its intensity decreasing next to something even brighter. The pale in this case is unrelated to the one in beyond the pale, which has to do with territory marked by a literal...
In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant look into the myriad stories behind the word cocktail. Does the drink name come from feathers? Horses? Something up a horse’s rump? It’s a weird wandering down etymology lane… This minicast...