All English Idioms [A-Z] NOW

[sarhan010]

السلام عليكم

i would like to present some english idioms with examples

Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if you know the meaning of every word in the see or hear, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it

1- A bad apple
Meaning:

A (morally) bad person who makes a whole group bad.

A bad apple is someone who has a bad effect on a whole group or system.

People also say, "One bad/rotten apple spoils the (whole) bushel/barrel."

Example: The corruption in the government started with a bad apple, a high official two years ago. Now the whole system is corrupt.

2- Be A Piece Of Cake
Meaning:

To be very easy
If something is a piece of cake, it is very easy to do.

Example:


A: How was the driving test yesterday? Did you pass?
B: Of course! It was a piece of cake.



3- Be All Ears
Meaning:

Be very intersted in what someone is about to say.

If you are all ears, you are eager and ready to listen to what someone is going to say.

Example:
Now tell us all about your adventures in Afraica last summer. I'm all ears.
When the president started his speech, he found everyone listening, all ears.

3- Be As Blind A Bat

Meaning:

Be unable to see well or unable to see at all.

If someone is as blind as a bat, he/she cannot see well or cannot see at all because of his/her very bad eyesight.

Example: A: Can you read the first paragraph on page 115 for me?
B: Sorry, I forgot to bring my glasses. I'm as blind as a bat without them.




4- Backfire

Meaning:

to produce an unexpected / undesired / opposite result.
If your plan or action backfires, you get the opposite result to the one you wanted.
Example:

The new stricter school policy may backfire and do more harm to the students than good.
Her plan to lose weight backfired. After losing 10 pounds, she started to eat a lot again and gained 20 pounds quickly.


5- Bark Up The Wrong Tree


Meaning:

To misunderstand a situation and complain to a wrong person or blame a wrong thing.

If someone is barking up the wrong tree, he/she has an incorrect idea about a situation, and his/her course of action is wrong.

Example:
Don't blame me. I have nothing to do with it. You are barking up the wrong tree.
The committee spent more than 5 month to try to solve the problem. They were just barking up the wrong tree.

6- Beat Around The Bush:

Meaning:

Avoid or delay talking about something unpleasant or embarrassing

If you beat around the bush, you don't say something directly to someone because you are worried about his/her reaction and don't want to upset him/her.

Some people also say " beat about the bush. "


Example:
Don't beat around the bush! Tell me what exactly you want.

Let's not beat around the bush anymore. You'd better do this project over. It's not acceptable to us

[sarhan010]

7- Beat it
Meaning:

Go away immediately.
If you say "Beat it" to someone, you tell him/her to leave quickly because he/she is annoying. This is an impolite command.
Example:

I guess we should beat it before she comes back.
"This is not your place. Beat it!" (This is not a polite way to ask someone to leave.)


8- Bend over backwards


Meaning:

Do as much as you can to help or please someone.
If you bend over backwards, you do your best or try harder than you need in order to please someone or do something he/she wants.

Example:

The manager bent over backwards to help new employees.

I bent over backward, trying to defend her. I don't know what else I can do for her.


9- Bookworm

Meaning:

Someone who loves reading very much

If you describe someone as a bookworm, he/she likes reading very much and reads a lot.


Example: My daughter was a real bookworm when she was a child.
I found the joys of reading when I read that book. I became a bookworm after that.

10- The Bottom Line

Meaning:

The most important factor in a situation or a decision to consider.

If you say the bottom line is xxxx, you mean xxxx is the most important or critical fact you want others to consider.


Note: The original meaning of the bottom line is the final line of an accounting report of a company or an organization.
That line shows how much money the company/organization has earned or lost during a particular period of time.


Example:
After a long heated discussion, the manager finally said, "The bottom line is, we have a limited budget and simply can't continue this project any longer."

I've heard enough of your excuses. What's the bottom line?

11- Bite off more than one can chew

Meaning:

To try to do something that is too difficult

If you bite off more than you can chew, you try to do more than you are able to.


Example:
She has bitten off more than she can chew again. She has agreed to finish 3 very difficult projects by the end of this year.

Do your best. Do whatever you can, but don't bite off more than you can chew.

12- Be broke
Meaning:

Without money
If you are broke, you don't have money.
Example:

"Do you want to go to the movies tonight?" "I can't go. I'm broke. Tomorrow is payday."


13- Bring the house down


Meaning:

Make people (audience) excited, laugh, or enjoy a lot while performing or making a speech

If you, your performance, or your speech brings the house down, your performance or speech is so good that the audience enjoys it a lot, becomes excited, applauds (clap their hands), or laughs a lot.


Example:
Sarah is a musical genius. Her performances always bring the house down.
The Prime Minister brought the house down when he made his monumental speech in 1965.

He's a very poor actor. Instead of bringing down the house, he always empties it.

[sarhan010]

14- Bug someone
Meaning:

Bother someone

If someone/something bugs you, he/she/it annoys you.

Example:
That's enough! Stop bugging me. Don't ask me anymore.
He's always talking too loud in the office. It really bugs us.

15- (Have / Get) Butterflies in someone's stomach
Meaning:

Very nervous or excited before doing something important such as giving a speech and taking a test.
If you have butterflies in your stomach, you are very nervous and/or excited about something you are going to do soon.

Example:

He always gets butterflies in his stomach before taking a test.

16- Can't make head nor tail (out) of something / someone

Meaning:

Not be able to understand
If you can't make head nor tail (out) of something or someone, you can't understand it/him/her at all.

Example:

Could you show me how to use this machine? I can't make head nor tail out of the instructions in the manual.

Bob is a very strange guy. Everything he says and does is very strange. I cannot make head nor tail of him.


17- Cast pearls before swine


Meaning:

Offer or show something valuable, good, or beautiful to someone who does not understand its value
If you are casting pearls before swine, you are wasting your time showing or offering something very helpful or valuable to someone who does not understand or appreciate it.

Example:

Don't bother explaining Shakespeare to Bob. It would be like casting pearls before swine.

Tom wouldn't listen to Sarah's wise advice. She was just casting pearls before swine.



18- Catch someone's eye


Meaning:

Attract someone and make him/her look at something.
If someone or something catches your eye, you look because of interest.


Example:

While driving on the freeway, an interesting billboard caught my eye.

Suddenly something flying in the sky caught his eye. It was a big bird he had never seen before.

19- Be chicken

Meaning:

Coward.
If you are chicken, you are not brave enough to do something.

Example:

"Why won't you dive in? Are you chicken? (Don't be chicken!)"


20 - Get (have) cold feet


Meaning:

Suddenly become (be) very nervous about doing something that you were going to do.
If you get cold feet, you become afraid to do something that you planned to do or agreed to do.


Example:

It's normal for young people to get cold feet before their wedding.

He agreed to go bungee jumping with his friends, but he got cold feet when they arrived at the jump

[sarhan010]

21- Go / Quit Cold Turkey

Meaning:

Quit a bad habit such as smoking or drinking alcohol suddenly, without any gradual adjustment.
If you quit something (smoking, etc.) cold turkey, you stop it suddenly and completely.


Example:

Tom was a heavy drinker for more than 15 years; then he quit drinking cold turkey. He's never drunk again since then.

22- **** Someone's Goose

Meaning:

Get someone in trouble. Keep someone from succeeding.
If you **** someone's goose, you get him/her into trouble or prevent him/her from succeeding at something.


Example:
Ted stayed up late yesterday at a party and missed an important meeting in the morning.
He told his boss he was sick, but one of his colleagues ****ed his goose. She saw him dancing at the party last night.

When the president made a wrong decision about the country's economic policy, his political goose was ****ed.

23- Be (as) cool as a cucumber

Meaning:

very calm and relaxed even in a difficult situation
If someone is (as) cool as a cucumber, he/she is very relaxed and/or calm when you expect him/her to be nervous or upset.

Example:

He had very bad news last night, but he came to the office as cool as a cucumber this morning as if nothing had happened.

She was cool as a cucumber even right after she was fired.

24- Cool someone's heels

Meaning:

Wait for a long time.
If you cool your heels, someone makes you wait for a long time with nothing to do, so you get bored or impatient.


Example:


While they were having a long meeting, Mary was cooling her heels waiting for the results.

The show was so popular that I had to cool my heels in a long line at the box office.


25 - Couch potato

Meaning:

A person who spends a lot of idle time sitting and watching television.
If a person is a couch potato, he/she is not active and spends most of his/her time sitting and watching TV.
He/she doesn't do anything productive.

Example:

School children don't play outside as much as before. Many of them are overweight couch potatoes.
Don't be a couch potato! You're just wasting your time.

[sarhan010]

26- Be cut from the same cloth
Meaning:

Be very similar, act in a very similar way

If you say two or more people are cut from the same cloth, you mean they are very alike or act in a very similar way.


Example: When you teach children, remember that they are not cut from the same cloth. Each child has his/her own personality.

27- Dear John letter

Meaning:

A letter from a woman to her boyfriend or husband telling him that she doesn't love him anymore.
If a woman writes a Dear John letter to her boyfriend (or husband), she tells him that she wants end their relationship.


Example:


His girlfriend wrote him a Dear John letter and moved to Japan.

28- Don't let the grass grow under your feet.
(Not let the grass grow under someone's feet)


Meaning:

Act now without any delay.
If you say "Don't let the grass grow under your feet" to someone, you tell him/her not to waste time and to do something immediately.

If someone doesn't let the grass grow under his/her feet, he/she does something right now without waiting.

Example:

Now that you know what to do, act right away. Don't let the grass grow under your feet.

A: Do you think the manager's already started to do something to solve the problem?
B: I believe so. He's the kind of guy who doesn't let the grass grow under his feet.


29- Be down in the dumps


Meaning:

Be very sad and depressed.
If you are down in the dumps, you feel very sad and miserable. You don't have much interest in life.


Example:

Mary has been down in the dumps since her mother's death.

He looks a bit down in the dumps these days. Let's cheer him up.

She failed her exam and is down in the dumps.


30- Drive someone up the wall



Meaning:

1. Annoy or irritate someone very much.
2. Put someone into an extreme position or situation. (= force someone up the wall)

If someone or something drives you up the wall, he/she/it annoys you very much or
pushes you to an awkward or extreme position.


Example:

The heat in this apartment drives me up the wall!

The company didn't fix the problem until the government forced it up the wall.

31- Eat out

Meaning:

Eat a meal in a restaurant.
If you eat out, you go out and eat a meal in a restaurant instead of eating at home.


Example:

I don't want to **** tonight. Why don't we eat out?

He is a single student and eats out a lot.