Living Inside A Real English Castle
B1 English listening practice · British English · Curated for intermediate learners
What does “tucked away” mean in English?
When something is “tucked away,” it is in a quiet, out-of-the-way place — not right in front of you, but still there if you know where to look. A village tucked away in the mountains. A key tucked away in a drawer. The phrase has a small feeling of something private and a little hidden. You will see it a lot in travel writing.
The verb “tuck” first meant to push or fold something neatly into a small space — like tucking a shirt into trousers, or tucking a child into bed. “Tucked away” carries the same idea: the place or thing is folded out of sight, kept somewhere quiet. In the clip, the narrator introduces the castle like this: “Castle Howard is tucked away in the northern English county of Yorkshire.” The phrase sets the scene right away — the castle is real and large, but hidden from the busy world. You have to travel to find it. You can use “tucked away” for places, objects, or even money. A café tucked away down a side street. A little cash tucked away in savings. The form stays the same — always “tucked away,” not “tuck away,” when you use it as an adjective.
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.