An idiom is a word or phrase whose meaning can’t be understood outside its cultural context. These expressions are usually figurative and would be nonsensical if read literally. Although most of us only use a few idioms in our everyday speech, it’s believed that there are tens of thousands of them in the English language.
Some idioms are expressions that keep their meanings even after their origins have been forgotten. Others include words or phrases that are rare outside their idiomatic uses (e.g., rest on one’s laurels, sleight of hand). Others use recognizable words in strange ways (e.g., cut to the chase, rule of thumb). And some are simply metaphors (e.g., in the doghouse, kick a hornet’s nest).
Idioms generally convey a casual tone, and it’s risky to use them whenever there’s a possibility that a substantial portion of your readers won’t understand. For example, using the American idiom like gangbusters may be a bad idea if you are likely to be read by British or Australian readers.
Below is a list of all our posts on idioms.
A
- A cog in the wheel and a cog in the machine
- A leg up
- Achilles' heel
- All in all
- Another string in your bow
- Another think coming
- April Fool's or April Fools'
- As crook as Rookwood
- Asleep at the switch and asleep at the wheel
- At loggerheads
- At the end of the day
- At wits' end
B
- Back in the day
- Batten the hatches
- Bawl out
- Beat around the bush
- Beyond the pale
- Bill of goods
- Blue collar, white collar
- Brown-nose and brownnose
- Bully pulpit
- Bum-rush vs bum's rush
- Bunk, bunkum, buncombe
- Burn one's bridges and burn one's boats
- By and by vs. by the by
- By dint of
C
- Can of worms vs pandora's box
- Canary in the coalmine
- Cannot see the forest for the trees
- Catch-22
- Catty-corner, kitty-corner
- Center around or center on
- Chalk up vs. chock
- Champing at the bit vs. chomping at the bit
- Cheek by jowl
- Cherry-pick
- Chills down the spine
- Chinwag
- Chock-full
- Close but no cigar
- Connect the dots and join the dots
- Could care less
- Cover all the bases
- Cream of the crop
- Cut and dried
- Cut off your nose to spite your face
- Cut the mustard
- Cut to the chase
D
- Dark horse
- Davy Jones's locker
- Derring-do
- Devil is in the details vs. God is in the detail
- Different from, different than, different to
- Dog days
- Double-edged sword
- Down the pike vs. down the pipe
- Drag one's feet and drag one's heels
- Dribs and drabs
- Drink the Kool-Aid
- Dyed in the wool
E
- Eighty-six
- Eleventh hour
F
- Ferret out
- Flash in the pan
- Flip one's lid vs. flip one's wig
- Flotsam and jetsam
- Fly-by-night
- For God's sake
- For the birds
G
- Get down to brass tacks
- Get religion
- Get the ball rolling and start the ball rolling
- Get the skinny
- Going postal
- Ground zero
H
- Hands down
- Have a cow and have kittens
- Headwind
- Hear, hear vs. here, here
- Hit the hay and hit the sack
- Hogwash
- Hold all the cards and hold all the aces
- Hold at bay and keep at bay
- Hold sway
I
- If need be or if needs be
- If the shoe fits and if the cap fits
- In a manner of speaking
- In point of fact or in fact or as a matter of fact
- In the offing
- Inside baseball
- Itchy feet
K
- Keep under wraps
- Kibosh
- Kick the can down the road
- Knee-high to a grasshopper
- Knock up
- Knuckle under vs knuckle down
L
- Learn the ropes and know the ropes
- Level playing field and level the playing field
- Like a bull in a china shop
- Like clockwork and as regular as clockwork
- Like gangbusters
- Litmus test
- Little to no or little to none
- Lo, lo and behold
- Long in the tooth
M
- Make a clean breast of it and come clean
- Make hay
- Mealy-mouthed
- More bang for one's buck and bigger bang for one's buck
- Mother lode
- Murderers' row
N
- Neat as a pin
- Neck and neck
- Nickle-and-dime
- Nip in the bud
- Nosy Parker
- Nothing to sneeze at and not to be sneezed at
O
- Off the cuff
- Old chestnut
- Old Glory
- Olive branch
- On a shoestring and shoestring budget
- On tenterhooks
- On the fritz
- On the lam
- On the up and up
- On the wagon, off the wagon
- One fell swoop
- Out and out
- Out of pocket
P
- Pale in comparison
- Pardon my French and excuse my French
- Part and parcel
- Pass muster
- Pass the buck, the buck stops
- Passing strange
- Pay the piper
- Pecking order
- Perfect storm
- Peter out
- Play by ear
- Poor-mouth vs bad-mouth
- Prank call or crank call
- Prodigal son
- Proof is in the pudding
- Pull the rug out from under
- Pulling one's leg
- Purple prose
- Put a flea in someone's ear vs put a bug in someone's ear
- Put on heirs or airs
R
- Ramrod straight and ramrod through
- Read the fine print and read the small print
- Red herring
- Red tape
- Ride on someone's coattails and coattail effect
- Rule of thumb
S
- Said the actress to the bishop
- Say one's peace vs piece
- Selling like hotcakes
- Shore up
- Short shrift
- Silver lining
- Slam dunk
- Sleight of hand
- Smarty-pants and smarty-boots
- Snake oil, snake-oil salesman
- Some odd
- Soup up
- Sow wild oats
- Spit and image vs. spitting image
- Swan song
- Sword of Damocles
T
- Take a shine to
- Take the mickey out of someone
- Taken aback
- Tease out
- Tempest in a teapot and storm in a teacup
- The $64,000 question
- The jig is up and the game is up
- The rub
- Third rail
- Three sheets to the wind
- Throw the baby out with the bathwater
- Tide over
- To a T
- To boot
- To the nines
- Toe the line
- Tongue-in-cheek
- Touch and go
- Touch base
- Tough row to hoe
- Trick or treat vs trick-or-treat
- Trooper or trouper
- Truck with
U
- Unknown quantity
- Up to snuff
- Used to
W
- Wallop and pack a wallop
- Wash one’s hands of
- Wear the trousers and wear the pants
- When pigs fly and pigs might fly
- Whirling dervish
- Who's Who
- Whole nine yards
- Word to the wise
- Worse comes to worst
- Wreak havoc (and wreaked vs. wrought)
- Writ large
Z
- Zero-sum game
Spelling mistake: “Another think coming”
That’s the idiom.
I thought for a long time that it was “another thing coming,” but was finally corrected. Now it makes sense – it follows “if you think…” so of course! Another think!
English language = idioms harvest. It is a particular challenge for a computer translation. How should one classify “at the end of the day”? An epidemic, endemic language abuse?
There’s no better way to grasp how much we do use idioms and metaphoric phrases in our everyday speech than to have a conversation with someone who’s just learning English. Even a phrase as simple as “how’s it going?” can be puzzling.
Please add ‘Flipped his wig’! I’ve always been curious about that one…
I like all this information, pretty useful. Do you allow this material to be shared in other blog?
Please do not do that. We submit DMCA requests to Google about all sites that copy our content, and most of our requests have led to negative action for the copying sites.
Uh, if you’re too stringent with what you write here, then you surely don’t deserve user contributions like I was just making (and now thinking of stopping altogether).
Of course we can use the information you present here. Information cannot be copyrighted. Your particular compositions are your own, and these can be protected, but I think you need to take a step back and reconsider how much you want to belong to a community. The way you phrased this here is just chilling.
keeball wrote to @c892b3e6220082aaa1c3dcf89ae99e94:disqus :
How do you copyright general information? If I had written something similar without having visited this site, am I still violating copyrights? It’s like copyrighting a color.
YES YET YOU WAS WERE THINK THAT DO DOES ???????????????
What about “fixing” meaning getting ready or preparing to leave or do something? I’m fixing to go to Nashville today.
I think it is a shortened form of “I’m fixing up to go out and . . .” “Fixing up” in this case ironically seems to conflate “preparing” and “repairing”. “I’m repairing up to bring in the cattle” might work if you think of the constant repairs to the saddle, chaps, leatherworks, reins, etc. that a cowboy needs to stay on top of. You have to check that everything is repaired before setting out on a new project.
Touch wood is an idiom in the UK.
But it has a different meaning here than it does in the US.
It certainly does! And it makes me moist down below.
Can it really mean something else in the UK? other than superstition I mean?
BEST FOR ME
I have two popular idioms missing from this list… 1) To cut off your nose to spite your face and 2) Throw out the baby with the bath water