A list of phrases about animals
From 'A bird in the hand' to 'Weasel words', we love to include animals in our language.
Here's a select collection of phrases and sayings inspired by our furry and feathered friends:
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
A fish rots from the head down
A leopard cannot change its spots
A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle
An albatross around one's neck
Big fleas have little fleas upon their back to bite 'em
Birds of a feather flock together
Cat's pajamas - The
Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war
Don't change horses in midstream
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched
Don't keep a dog and bark yourself
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
Don't shut the stable door after the horse has bolted
Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog
Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings
How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride
Like a chicken with its head cut off
Like being savaged by a dead sheep
Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun
Music has charms to sooth the savage beast/breast
Neither fish nor flesh, nor good red herring
Never look a gift horse in the mouth
One swallow doesn't make a summer
Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross
Separate the sheep from the goats
Straight from the horse's mouth
The ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind
The best laid schemes of mice and men
The chickens come home to roost
The early bird catches the worm
The hair of the dog that bit you
There is more than one way to kill a cat
They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance
Where the bee sucks, there suck I
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink
You can't hold with the hare and run with the hounds
You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear