Stealing miserably in annas and pice. Please help me understand it. I am reading George Orwell's Burmese Days, and I came across the following sentence: However, he had too much talent to spend his life in a clerkship, stealing miserably in annas and pice. I've done some research on the meaning of anna and pice, they are all former monetary units used in India and Pakistan, so the meaning is crystal clear. But I am wondering about whether I can use 'steal in nickel and dime' in more general situations. another question: is "give a nickel but steal a dime' a set phrase? If not, does it sound natural for native speakers? Thank you very much.

what does by-the-by mean in this sentence? "There is no downside to hammering a multilateral agreement on a controversial subject negotiated by obscure officials in air-conditioned rooms abroad. That it was agreed by governments in plain sight, with parliamentarians invited to participate, is by-the-by." I don't understand the meaning of by-the-by in the sentence. Can you help me? Thank you.

riffle through? or I was going through some reading materials for my tests the other day. It was a little bit urgent though cause I procrastinate a lot. I was wondering about whether I can use riffle through instead of go through. I was just doing some quick reading, extremely light. Are there some other words or phrases that convey the same idea? Thank you very much.

What does 'bleach-streaked' mean in this sentence? 'Like all good things, or at least like all bleach-streaked showboats, he can't last forever' The above sentence is from the Oxford dictionary, but the dictionary doesn't provide a definition for bleach-streaked. It seems like 'bleach-streaked' carries a negative tone here? Could you please explain it for me? Thank you very much.

discrimination chain? is it a genuine expression for native speakers? "The non-Portuguese look down on the Portuguese, the Portuguese look down on the Macau residents, the Macau residents look down on the Mainland Chinese, and the Mainland Free Scheme Chinese look down on the package tours." " Not only Macau has its own discrimination chain, but it also has a blaming chain." The two sentence above were from a Macau newspaper, the piece was written by a Chinese writer. In China, we have an interesting social phenomenon named "鄙视链", as described by the Chinese writer. 鄙视链 literally means discrimination chain in English. But I doubt whether native speakers can understand or if it is used at all. If the answer is no, could you please tell me how to describe the situation in English? Thank you very much.

What does lay mean in "lay the Great American Novel"? I am reading an obituary about Stan Lee in the Economist, and I came across the sentence above, I don't quite understand the meaning of 'lay' here. The context is as follows: He loved the sound of words, the music of vowels and the consonants jostling each other. Inside him, he really believed, lay the Great American Novel! Thank you for your help.

What does ‘for all the good it did’ allude here? I’ve done some research on ‘ for all the good it does’. For example, I told him ten times, for all the good it did me. = it didn't do me any good, he never understood. I am reading Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology and I came across the following sentence: Thor pushed the old woman and he pulled her, he tried to move her, to trip her, to force her down, but she might as well have been made of rock for all the good it did. So the question is what does ‘for all the good it did’ imply here? Does it mean the fact that the old woman was like a boulder didn’t do any good to her? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Thank you in advance.

a second phone? how to describe the phone that's not your daily driver? I have two phones that I use pretty much everyday. My daily driver is my new iPhone 8p. And also I have an iPhone 5, which I use everyday but not as frequent as iPhone 8p. So, can I describe my iPhone 5 as my "standby phone", "backup phone" or simply my "second phone"? We use "备机“ in Chinese, which literally means " backup phone". Thank you.