Ache For and Force To Be Reckoned With

Today's phrasal verb is ache for.  It means,
Want something or someone a lot.


My partner's been away for two weeks- I am aching for her.
I'm aching for a good night's rest

Today's idiom is force to be reckoned with, which means
Someone or something that is important and powerful and must not be ignored.  

Walter is a force to be reckoned with. Be prepared to deal with him. 
The growing discontent with the political system is a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Just to be generous I'll provide you the meaning of the word "reckon" and will explain some of its finer points for you.  Reckon means

To count or compute: reckon the cost.

 To consider as being; regard as.

 Informal To think or assume.

I reckon that we'll have to leave early.

Do you reckon you'll be able to go to the grocery store after work?

We'll have to leave early, I reckon.

They reckoned that they would reach their destination by noon.

Losses were reckoned to be over a million dollars.

An important use of this word is as a noun, reckoning. 

The act or an instance of reckoning: as a : account, bill b : computation c : calculation of a ship's position (called dead reckoning. Dead in this instance means "exact").

A settling of accounts, ex., "day of reckoning" (an idiom that means "final judgment", as in a soul's judgment at death).

A summing up

.

I was more than $10 off in my reckoning.

When the day of reckoning comes, we will have to face some unpleasant truths.

Our football team hardly comes into the reckoning. (The team is no longer competitive and not eligible for post-season playoffs).

Because of his injury, he is out of the reckoning. (not considered as an actuality or option).

The team is still in the reckoning.(a possible place in the post-season).

This word, reckon, as mentioned in the dictionary definition, is regarded as informal speech and is sometimes regarded as dialect.  That is, it's often used by rural speakers to mean "compute". (Because it is used by rural speakers more than urban ones it is listed as dialect in some dictionaries). Also, it is more commonly used to mean the same thing as "consider" in the countryside.  You'll often here this word in the movies whenever you see a story set in the past that has characters that are country folk.  American westerns are a good example of this.  Cowboys in the movies say it all the time. However, this is not mean that reckon is not a useful word that is still alive and in common, daily usage.  It is.  Try using it today.