cavalier

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Googleからの引用です。
This isn't just a Google thing. "In an up market, say the late 1990s, the cost of making a bad hiring decision was low," according to Alec Levenson of the University of Southern California's Center for Effective Organizations. "The company could be a lot more cavalier about hiring, because if the worker doen't fit, the chances are that he'll move on soon."
"cavalier" は騎士とか紳士を連想しますが、上記の "cavalier" は名詞ではないし、意味も紳士的とは反対方向の意味の様です。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Showing a lack of proper concern; offhand.: Anne was irritated by his cavalier attitude
・Cambridge English Dictionary: not considering other people's feelings or safety: That's a rather cavalier attitude.
V2 Vocabulary Building Dictionaryに "cavalier" について次の説明がありました。
Tips: Cavalier is usually used to describe someone who makes decisions without considering the risk or negative consequences of the decision, usually in a very arrogant way. It is also used as a noun, referring to a knight or a gallant and chivalrous gentleman, but this meaning is no longer used in modern English.

確かに現代には騎士はいないので、引用文に使われている意味を最初に覚えるべきですね。

eyeteeth

宮部みゆきの小説 'The Devil's Wisper' を読んでいます。

The Asanos had an old wind-up clock that an antique dealer would probably give his eyeteeth to get hold of. It had been a wedding present and had survived earthquakes and moves, but it had never stopped ticking away.
"give his eyeteeth" の意味が分からないので "eyeteeth" を辞書で引くと "give one's eyeteeth" と云う慣用句であることが分かりました。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Do anything in order to have or be something.: I'd give my eyeteeth to be going to sea.

・Dictionary.com: to give something one considers very precious, usually in exchange for an object or situation one desires: She would give her eyeteeth for that job.

この語源等について The Word Detective に下記の丁寧な説明がありました。
"To give one's eyeteeth for" has been a popular figure of speech meaning "to be willing to undergo great sacrifice for"since at least 1930, when it was used by Somerset Maugham in his comic novel "Cakes and Ale." One's "eyeteeth" are, as you say, the uppercanine teeth, so called since about 1580 because they are directly under and closest to the eyes. Not only are eyeteeth functionally valuable, being used to bite off and chew food, but any damage to them is likely to be very painful, as the nerves of these particular teeth run close to the eyes and the pain may actually be felt in the eyes. So to voluntarily suffer loss of one's eyeteeth would indeed be a great sacrifice, perhaps not as profound as "giving one's right arm for" something, but still a major drag. It would definitely make eating pizza (my personal quality-of-life standard) difficult, for instance. An even greater sort of sacrifice, however, would be "to give one's eyes for," a hyperbolic metaphor for sacrifice that dates back to 1857.
"to give one's eyes for" の表現なら直ぐに分かりますね。

cow magnet

私が勤めている会社は特殊な計測器の専門商社で、私は計測には無縁の素人なので、滅多に読むことはありませんが、会社で購読している専門誌の 'Metrologist NCSLI Worldwide News'（季刊誌）を見かることがあります。仕事が一段落して暇だったので最新号をパラパラと見ていたら 'Magnets Attract Young Minds' と云う記事に "I learned the earth is a magnet and I learned about a cow magnet." と書かれた見出しを目にしました。"cow magnet" とはどんな磁石か興味をもち記事を読みましたが、記事内には "cow magnet" の話はありませんでした。そこでGoogleで "cow magnet" を検索したら次の様な記事が幾つもありました。
Cow magnets are popular with dairy farmers and veterinarians to help prevent Hardware Disease in cattle. While grazing, cows eat everything from grass and dirt to nails, staples and bits of bailing wire (referred to as tramp iron). Tramp iron tends to lodge in the honeycombed walls of the reticulum, threatening the surrounding vital organs and causing irritation and inflammation, known as Hardware Disease. The cow loses her appetite and decreases milk output (dairy cows), or her ability to gain weight (feeder stock). Cow magnets help prevent this disease by attracting stray metal from the folds and crevices of the rumen and reticulum. One magnet works for the life of the cow!
米国の農場にはそんなに釘やら針金が落ちているのでしょうか？　"cow magnet" の広告も多くありましたのでそうなのでしょうね。

bum steer

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Googleからの引用です。
The most interesting thing about Selvin's puzzle is how hard it is. One study found that only 12 percent of those questioned gave the right answere. That's amazing when you consider that someone who's completely clueless can guess and stand a fifty-fifty chance of being right! This is a case where intuition gives a bum steer.
最後に出てきた "bum steer" の意味を調べます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A piece of false information or guidance.: apparently, those who recommended your good service gave us a bum steer

・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: misleading instructions or guidance; a misleading suggestion. (Bum = false; phony. Steer = guidance, as in the steering of a car. *Typically: get ~; have ~; give someone ~.) Wilbur gave Ted a bum steer and Ted ended up in the wrong town. I got a bum steer from the salesman, and I paid far more than I needed to for a used car.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a piece of bad advice: He gave us a bum steer about that restaurant - it was terrible!
語源の "bum" + "steer" を覚えれば意味は直ぐに分かる様になりますね。

hold water

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Googleからの引用です。
It's far from clear that either reason hold water. The human resources profession is full of customary practices of no demonstrable value.
"hold water" はどこかで見た気のする表現です。文字通り水を保つ、つまり水を漏らさないが原義のようですが、ここでは「真実だ、筋が通る」（前にfar from clearがあるので文としては否定していますが）の意味だと推測できます。辞書で確認します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: (of a statement, theory, or line of reasoning) appear to be valid, sound, or reasonable.: In other words, their excuse does not hold water!

・Collins Dictionary: If an argument or theory does not hold water, it does not seem to be reasonable or be in accordance with the facts.: This argument simply cannot hold water in Europe.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: If a reason, argument, or explanation holds water, it is true: Her alibi just didn't hold water.
推測はだいたい当たっていましたね。

Wedding Anniversary

Reader's Digest 11月号の記事 'Life in these United States' から引用します。
My friend Garrick had the solution to forgetting his wife's birthday and their wedding anniversery: He opened an account with a local florist and provided it with both dates as well as instructions to send flowers and a card signed "Your loving husband, Garrick."
For a few years, it worked. Then one day, Garrick came home on their wedding anniversary. He saw the flowers on the dining room table and said, "What nice flowers. Where did you get them?"
そう言えば私達の結婚記念日は確か、確認の為に結婚指輪を外して見ると、1974・2.17と刻印されていました。お互いに昔の事はとっくに忘れている様です。

crib

Are You Smart Enough to Work at Googleからの引用です。
In Silicon Valley, outlandish benefits have about as long a history as tricky interview questions. Hewlett-Packard was one of the pioneers, offering free snacks, and expensive gifts for newly weds and new parents. Many of Google's perks were cribbed from other companies like Genentech (the informal Friday meetings) and Facebook (bring your dog to work).
"crib" は名詞の囲いの付いた幼児用ベッドしか知りません。辞書を引きます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Copy (another person's work) illicitly or without acknowledgment.: he was doing an exam and didn't want anybody to crib the answers from him

・Collins Dictionary: If you crib, you copy something that someone else has written and pretend that it is your own work.: He had been caught cribbing in an exam.

・Cambridge English Dictionary: to copy or take someone else's work: I sometimes wonder what TV show he cribbed that line from.
幼児用ベッドからは想像できない意味ですね。

porous

The Japan Times Feb.4のオピニオン欄のThe shackles of history in a demoracy.と題された記事のキャプションを引用します。
The boundary between historical fact and fiction is more porous than students of history might think.
穴だらけ、多孔質の意味の "porous" は知っていますが、それでは上記の文の意味は分かりません。記事を読み進みます。
History is not only written by victors but also is used by most nations as a political tool in intrastate or interstate context.
Indeed, many countries create self-serving or sanitized historical narratives. Autocracies have a monopoly on presenting and interpreting history.
この後に続くのは主にインドの独立はガンジーの非暴力運動で成し遂げられたと喧伝されたインドの歴史の神話を説明で、実際は非暴力運動だけで独立できた訳ではなく、この神話はその後のインドの歴史に悪影響も与えたと説いています。 "porous" の意味が何となく分かって来ましたが、辞書で多孔質以外の説明があるか調べます。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: capable of being penetrated: porous national boundaries

・Oxford English Dictionary: Not retentive or secure.: he ran through a porous defense to score easily
・Wiktionary: (Of legislation) full of loopholes
穴とは関係の無い意味はありませんでしたが、記事で使われた "porous" の意味は、歴史の事実と作られた歴史の境界には明確な一線はなく、歴史は状況・立場により、事実と作り話の間を行ったり、来たり変わるものだと言っている様だ。

you're in for

The Japan Times Jan.31に下記の二つの別々の記事キャプションに使われている表現が気になりました。
・Thinking of working in Japan? It's good to know what you're in for
・Demand for non-Japanese engineers is growing, but know what you're in for before you apply
記事の内容はどちらも 'non-Japanese'（foreigner/外人の言葉を避けていますね）が日本で働く場合に経験する、本国なら余り経験することのないこと（良い事も悪いことも）が書かれていました。辞書で "in for / be in for" の説明を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Have good reason to expect (typically something unpleasant): it looks as if we're in for a storm


・Wiktionary: To be able to expect or anticipate; to be about to suffer, generally said of something unpleasant. The weather forecast says we are in for three feet of snow over the next week.

・Collins Dictionary: about to be affected by (something, esp something unpleasant): you're in for a shock

blazes on a trail

興味深い題名に引かれてPierre Bayard著の 'How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read' を買って読み始めました。
Books You Have Forgottenの章から引用します。
Montaigne finds a solution to his memory problem through an ingenious system of notations at the end of each volume. Once foregetfulness has set in, he can use these notes to rediscover his opinion of the author and his work at the time of his original reading. We can assume that another function of the notes is to assure him that he has indeed read the works in which they were inscribed, like blazes on a trail that are intended to show the way during future periods of amnesia.
Montaigneは日本語でモンテーニュと呼ぶ有名な哲学者で、英語の発音はモンテインに近い様です。ところで "blaze" だと燃え盛る炎を連想しますが、trailにそんなに明るい "blaze" は普通はないので別の意味があるのでしょう。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A mark made on a tree by cutting the bark so as to mark a route.: White, rectangular paint blazes mark the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia.

・Infoplease Dictionary: a spot or mark made on a tree, as by painting or notching or by chipping away a piece of the bark, to indicate a trail or boundary.
・A Glossary of Hiking Terms: A mark used to identify a trail, eg a spot of paint on a tree or rock. Originally, a mark made by removing bark from a tree.
なるほど日本の山道では木に赤いペイントの印がついているのを良く見かけますね。黄色の布が付いているのも見たことがあります。 "blaze" はこの意味で動詞の用法もありました。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: to make a new path or way by marking it so that others can follow: It took the Cherokee two years to blaze a trail between Texas and Kansas.