What is an Idiom?
An idiom is a phrase but it is different from other phrases in that you can’t understand its meaning from the words it is made from.
For instance, ‘a load of cobblers‘ has nothing to do with shoemakers and when people tell you to ‘break a leg‘ they don’t really mean it.
In order to speak the language the way native speakers do you need to understand and use idioms.
A list of Idioms
- ‘Worldwide’ Idioms
- A bad break
- A bad hair day
- A bad workman always blames his tools
- A big ask
- A bigger bang for your buck
- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- A bite to eat
- A blessing in disguise
- A bull and cow
- A bunch of fives
- A chip on your shoulder
- A diamond in the rough
- A dime a dozen
- A doubting thomas
- A drop in the bucket
- A fate worse than death
- A feather in ones cap
- A fish out of water
- A flash in the pan
- A fly in the ointment
- A fly on the wall
- A fool and his money are soon parted
- A fools paradise
- A foot in the door
- A golden key can open any door
- A hot potato
- A house divided against itself cannot stand
- A knight in shining armour
- A leopard cant change his spots
- A little bird told me
- A load of cobblers
- A load of codswallop
- A lot on your plate
- A man after my own heart
- A miss is as good as a mile
- A penny for your thoughts
- A penny saved is a penny earned
- A picture paints a thousand words
- A piece of cake
- A pig in a poke
- A place in the sun
- A red rag to a bull
- A safe pair of hands
- A sea change
- A shot in the arm
- A sight for sore eyes
- A skeleton in the closet
- A slap on the wrist
- A sledgehammer to crack a nut
- A sorry sight
- A stitch in time saves nine
- A stones throw
- A taste of your own medicine
- A thorn in my flesh
- A toss up
- A wolf in sheeps clothing
- About face
- About time
- Absence makes the heart grow fonder
- Abso bloody lutely
- Ace in the hole
- Achilles heel
- Across the board
- Act your age
- Actions speak louder than words
- Adage
- Adams ale
- Add fuel to the fire
- Add insult to injury
- Against the clock
- Agreement
- Aint my first rodeo
- Al desko
- Al fresco
- All at sea
- All bark and no bite
- All greek to me
- All in a days work
- All in all
- All kidding aside
- All set
- All the way
- All thumbs
- All to cock
- All together now
- Alley cat
- Alpha mom
- Alphabet soup
- Amber nectar
- America
- Amped up
- An act of god
- An arm and a leg
- An axe to grind
- An open and shut case
- Animals
- Ankle biter
- Aphorism
- Apples and pears
- As high as a kite
- At the drop of a hat
- Australian origin
- Away with the fairies
- Baby brain
- Baby bump
- Baby snatcher
- Back seat driver
- Back to square one
- Back to the drawing board
- Bag lady
- Bakers dozen
- Barking up the wrong tree
- Barnet fair
- Basket case
- Bat from the pavilion end
- Be a sport
- Be glad to see the back of
- Beach bum
- Bean counter
- Beat around the bush
- Beauty contest
- Bedroom tax
- Bells and whistles
- Bend over backwards
- Between a rock and a hard place
- Between the wars
- Beyond price
- Biblical
- Big fish in a small pond
- Binge watch
- Bitch slap
- Bite off more than you can chew
- Bite the dust
- Bite your tongue
- Blood blister
- Blood is thicker than water
- Blow a raspberry
- Blue
- Blue plate special
- Boat race
- Body
- Bottle and glass
- Bought the farm
- Brahms and lizst
- Brass monkey weather
- Brass tacks
- Break a leg
- Breast is best
- Bricks and mortar
- Brighton pier
- Bring your a game
- Brown bread
- Brown out
- Brum brum
- Bucket list
- Building
- Burn the midnight oil
- Business
- Bust a move
- Buy a lemon
- Calendar year
- Cant cut the mustard
- Canteen culture
- Carbon footprint
- Carpe diem
- Cast iron stomach
- Cat got your tongue?
- Caught between two stools
- Caught by the short hairs
- Chaise lounge
- Charley horse
- Chasing tail
- Cheek by jowl
- Cherry ripe
- Chew someone out
- Chicken feed
- Childhood
- Children
- Children should be seen and not heard
- China plate
- Chow down
- City bike
- Cliche
- Click bait
- Clock
- Close but no cigar
- Clothes
- Cloud cuckoo land
- Cock and bull story
- Cockney rhyming slang
- Code monkey
- Colour
- Come hell or high water
- Comedy
- Comfort women
- Company man
- Conflict
- Cop an attitude
- Corduroy road
- Country
- Country house hotel
- Crack someone up
- Cream crackered
- Crime
- Cross that bridge when you come to it
- Cross your fingers
- Crunch time
- Cry wolf
- Curiosity killed the cat
- Currant bun
- Cut corners
- Cut to the chase
- Daily grind
- Daisy roots
- Dance
- Date
- Date rape
- Day surgery
- Daylight saving time
- Dead ringer
- Dead white european male
- Death
- Designated driver
- Dial down
- Dicky dirt
- Discussing uganda
- Disgust
- Dog and bone
- Dog days of summer
- Donkeys years
- Dont bite the hand that feeds you
- Dont count your chickens before they hatch
- Dont cry over spilt milk
- Dont give up the day job
- Dont look a gift horse in the mouth
- Dont put all your eggs in one basket
- Double denim
- Double header
- Down to the wire
- Dressed to the nines
- Drink
- Drink like a fish
- Drive someone up the wall
- Dropping like flies
- Dry run
- Duvet day
- Ear popping
- Easy peasy
- Education
- Effort
- Eighty six
- Elbow grease
- Elephants trunk
- Elvis has left the building
- Emotion
- Employment
- Enhanced interrogation techniques
- Ethnic cleansing
- Euphemism
- Every cloud has a silver lining
- Everything but the kitchen sink
- Evil twin
- Excellence
- Excess
- Excuse my french
- Eyebrow raising
- Face card
- Face the music
- Factory farming
- Failure
- Fairytale ending
- Family
- Far cry from
- Fashion
- Feeding frenzy
- Fell off the back of a lorry
- Fiddlesticks
- Field day
- Find your feet
- Fire the imagination
- First among equals
- First footing
- First world
- First world problem
- Fixed in your ways
- Flea market
- Flea pit
- Flesh and blood
- Flip the bird
- Flog a dead horse
- Flotsam and jetsam
- Foam at the mouth
- Food
- Food fight
- Fools gold
- French
- Frock up
- Frog and toad
- Fruit
- Fuddy duddy
- Full List of Idioms
- Full monty
- Full of bull
- Funny farm
- Gee gee
- Gender bender
- George raft
- Get a gold star
- Get down to brass tacks
- Get off on the wrong foot
- Get on board
- Get out of hand
- Get out of the wrong side of the bed
- Get over it
- Get your head around
- Ginger beer
- Give him an inch and hell take a mile
- Give the benefit of the doubt
- Give the slip
- Glass ceiling
- Gnats bollock
- Go ape shit
- Go belly up
- Go down like a lead balloon
- Go for broke
- Go out on a limb
- Go the extra mile
- Going to hell in a handbasket
- Good samaritan
- Good to go
- Graveyard shift
- Greasy spoon
- Great minds think alike
- Great scot
- Greek origin
- Gregory peck
- Gut feeling
- Habit
- Had a good war
- Hair
- Hair of the dog
- Hair of the dog
- Half inch
- Happiness
- Happy sad
- Harry spankers
- Haste makes waste
- Hat trick
- Have a blast
- Have a captain cook
- He makes my flesh (or skin) crawl (or creep)
- Head over heels
- Hear it on the grapevine
- Heebie jeebies
- Hell bent
- Help yourself
- Hidden in plain sight
- High and mighty
- High on the hog
- High season
- Hit the books
- Hit the hay
- Hit the nail on the head
- Hit the sack
- Hobsons choice
- Hocus pocus
- Hold your horses
- Holy shit
- Honesty
- Household items
- Hyperbole
- I cant be doing with it
- I cant think straight
- Idiom categories
- Idioms coined in Britain
- Idioms coined in the USA
- If its not one thing, its another
- In a nutshell
- In cahoots with
- In like flynn
- In limbo
- In the bag
- In the buff
- In the heat of the moment
- In the same boat
- In your face
- Inside job
- It never rains but it pours
- It takes two to tango
- Its a small world
- Its all gone pete tong
- Its not rocket science
- Ivy league
- Jack palancing
- Jam jar
- Jelly belly
- Jimmy riddle
- Joke
- Joshing me
- Jump on the bandwagon
- Jump the shark
- Just deserts
- Keep an eye on
- Keep at bay
- Keep body and soul together
- Keep your chin up
- Khyber pass
- Kick the bucket
- Kill two birds with one stone
- Knee jerk reaction
- Knee trembler
- Knock on wood
- Know the ropes
- Lame duck
- Language
- Last but not least
- Last straw
- Latin
- Legal
- Lend me your ear
- Let bygones be bygones
- Let sleeping dogs lie
- Let the cat out of the bag
- Let your hair down
- Lets rewind
- Level playing field
- Like a chicken with its head cut off
- Link farm
- Link rot
- Liquor someone up
- Little devil
- Little fish in a big pond
- Loaf of bread
- Location
- Long in the tooth
- Loose cannon
- Lord fred
- Lose your head
- Lose your touch
- Luck
- Madness
- Magic mushroom
- Make a scene
- Make no bones about
- Man cave
- Many happy returns
- Mates rates
- Mea culpa
- Medical
- Mellow yellow
- Men in suits
- Method to my madness
- Military
- Mince pies
- Mind your language
- Misfortune
- Miss the boat
- Money
- Mrs mop
- Mumbo jumbo
- Mums the word
- Music
- Mutt and jeff
- My old china
- My old dutch
- Nail it
- Name
- Nature
- Nautical
- Nest egg
- Never never land
- New arrival
- New kid on the block
- New york minute
- Nine to five
- Nip slip
- Nitty gritty
- No dice
- No room to swing a cat
- No rush
- No saint
- No spring chicken
- Nonsense
- North and south
- Nose around
- Not all there
- Not playing with a full deck
- Number
- Off ones rocker
- Off the hook
- Off the record
- Old chestnut
- On a hiding to nothing
- On a wing and a prayer
- On cloud nine
- On the ball
- On the fence
- On the record
- On the same page
- On your tod
- Once in a blue moon
- Open warfare
- Out of sight
- Out of the blue
- Out on the town
- Over my dead body
- Over the top
- Paint the town red
- Partner up
- Pass the buck
- Patience
- Peachy keen
- Pedal to the metal
- Peeping tom
- Peg out
- Pen and ink
- Perfect pitch
- Phone it in
- Photo bomb
- Pig out
- Pigs ear
- Pigs might fly
- Pipe down
- Place
- Plates of meat
- Play devils advocate
- Play safe
- Play the field
- Politics
- Pommy bashing
- Porky pies
- Potatoes (or taters) in the mould
- Potty mouth
- Practice makes perfect
- Prick up your ears
- Pride
- Proverb
- Proverbial
- Pull the plug
- Pull the wool over someones eyes
- Pull your horns in
- Pulling your leg
- Put a sock in it
- Quality time
- Queer bashing
- Queer street
- Queer the pitch
- Rabbit and pork
- Rags to riches
- Raining cats and dogs
- Red letter day
- Red tape
- Reduplication
- Relaxation
- Religion
- Rest up
- Revenge porn
- Riding shotgun
- Ring fencing
- Rise and shine
- Risk
- Rome was not built in one day
- Rosie lea
- Rubbish
- Ruby murray
- Rule of thumb
- Run out of steam
- Sad ass
- Salad days
- Saved by the bell
- Scarper flow
- Science
- Scot free
- Scrape together
- Scrub up
- Secrets
- See eye to eye
- Sex
- Sexton blake
- Shakespeare
- Shoot down in flames
- Shoot straight
- Shoot through
- Shovel ready
- Side boob
- Silver bullet
- Silver fox
- Silver surfer
- Silver threads amongst the gold
- Silver tongued
- Sit tight
- Sixth sense
- Skid row
- Slang
- Smell a rat
- Smell something fishy
- Sniff test
- Son of a gun
- Sparrow fart
- Spitting image
- Spoiler alert
- Sport
- Stab someone in the back
- Steal someones thunder
- Step up to the mark
- Stitch up
- Straight from the horses mouth
- Stranger things have happened
- Stupidity
- Success
- Suck it up
- Surprise
- Swing by
- Swipe right
- Sympathy
- Syrup of figs
- Take a butchers
- Take a raincheck
- Take with a grain of salt
- Talk of the devil
- Tea leaf
- Technology
- That friday feeling
- That sucks
- The acid test
- The apple of my eye
- The author of your own misfortune
- The ball is in your court
- The best of both worlds
- The best thing since sliced bread
- The big pond
- The bull in the bowler hat
- The empty chair
- The fog of war
- The glorious twelfth
- The god squad
- The human body
- The icing on the cake
- The last straw
- The sound of leather on willow
- The tail wagging the dog
- The town bike
- The wheels have come off
- The whole nine yards
- Theatre
- Third time lucky
- Third times a charm
- Throw the towel in
- Tie the knot
- Til the cows come home
- Time
- Titfer tat
- To cut a long story short
- Tongue in cheek
- Tool
- Top banana
- Tour de force
- Toy boy
- Travel
- Trickery
- Trouble and strife
- Turn a blind eye
- Twenty three skidoo
- Twist someones arm
- Two and eight
- Types of Phrase
- Uncle dick
- Uncle tom
- Under the weather
- Unlucky in love
- Up a blind alley
- Up shit creek without a paddle
- Ups a daisy
- Us versus them
- Use your loaf
- Van goghs ear for music
- Variety is the spice of life
- Vatican roulette
- Veg out
- Vehicle
- Wardrobe malfunction
- Washed up
- Water
- Water under the bridge
- Wear your heart on your sleeve
- Weather
- Well hung
- Wet behind the ears
- Where theres muck theres brass
- Whipper snapper
- Whistle and flute
- White elephant
- Wild and woolly
- Wind someone up
- Wine and dine
- Winter drawers on
- Word for word
- Work
- Work out
- Worse for wear
- Would you adam and eve it
- Wouldnt be caught dead
- X marks the spot
- Yarn bombing
- Yellow belly
- You are what you eat
- You can lead a horse to water
- You cant judge a book by its cover
- You cant take it with you
- You cant teach an old dog new tricks
- Your guess is as good as mine
- Your name is mud
- Your number is up
- Zip your lip
