Some common idiomatic expressions:

 He let the cat out of the bag (accidentally told a secret).

 She got off Scott-free (escaped without punishment).

 He flew off the handle (went crazy).

We love idiomatic expressions and idiomatic phrases in English, don’t we? From an English language-

learner’s point of view, they are the ‘icing on the cake’ much like phrasal verbs and adjectives. But how

do we remember what they mean and how to use them?

Firstly, you need to know that idioms and phrases are everywhere in English: anything that doesn’t have a

literal, physical meaning is an idiom. Let’s look at some idiom examples:

 I find his excuses hard to swallow, he’s lying.

 The police have been digging around in his accounts looking for evidence of fraud.

 He’s a really bright spark, so I think he’ll do well at school.

These sentences all contain idioms, because you can’t swallow words or dig in a bank account in any

literal or physical way – and how can a ‘spark’ do well at school? You’ll also notice that a literal translation

into most languages won’t make sense.

These kinds of idioms are far more common, and therefore far more important, than the more colorful

expressions like ‘He’s kicked the bucket’ (died), ‘She’s hitting the books’ (studying), or ‘Break a

leg!’ (Good luck!), and without them students often sound too formal – saying things like:

List of Common English Idioms:

Idiom Meaning

Hard to swallow Difficult to believe

Digging around Looking for

He’s a really bright spark He’s an intelligent person

He’s kicked the bucket He’s died

Idiom Meaning

She’s hitting the books She’s studying hard

Break a leg! Good luck!

Set out on a new career Start a new career

Saunter through life Live in a relaxed way

Follow in someone’s footsteps Do something the way another person did it before

One step at a time Do something slowly and carefully

Career path The sequence of jobs someone takes that create their career

Milestones Important events in a person’s life or career

Dead end job A job that offers no opportunity for advancement

When someone is at a point in life where their decisions will have long
To be at a crossroads
term consequences

He’s on the straight and narrow He’s living in a morally proper way

To walk someone through

To show someone how to do something
something

We need to come up with a road

We need to make a plan
map

I wouldn’t go down that road if I

I wouldn’t do that if I were you!
were you!

Don’t run before you can walk Don’t try to do something difficult before mastering the basics

Inching forward When progress on something is being made in small increments

To move at a snail’s pace To move slowly

To get good mileage out of

To get a lot of benefits from something
something

To have your whole life in front of

To be young and have a lot of years to live
you

To get on with your life To make progress in life goals after a difficulty

To behave or speak carefully to avoid offending or causing problems with

To tread carefully
someone or something

To be a minefield When something presents many possible dangers

We’ll cross that bridge when we To wait to worry about one problem at a time
Idiom Meaning

come to it

Information superhighway The internet

Time is money Time is a valuable resource

A tasty (or juicy) bit of gossip Very interesting or sensational gossip

To devour someone or something To consume something very quickly

To add a pinch of salt to something To acknowledge that someone exaggerates

To chew something over To think about something before making a decision

To not swallow something To not accept something as fact

To bite off more than you can chew When someone makes a commitment that they cannot keep

To eat your wods When someone has to admit they were wrong

A warm welcome A friendly welcome

The cold shoulder An unfriendly welcome

When things heat up between

When a relationship becomes romantic
people

To be cold-hearted To be dispassionate or uncaring

A 24-hour hotline A phone line that is always active

A very frosty reception To receive a greeting that makes someone feel unwelcome

The Cold War War without active fighting between nations

A warm smile and the warm

A welcoming smile and handshake
handshake

People who call phones, usually for sales, who don’t have previous
Cold callers
contact with the person they’re calling

We took the temperature of the Checked the overall opinion of a person or group of people about
group something

Most people were quite warm about

People have a positive reaction to the idea
the idea

You’ll reap the rewards later To collect the benefits of your work

To prune out To clear, clean or groom something

Separate the wheat from the chaff Separate what is useful or valuable from what is worthless
Idiom Meaning

Rooted in Based on something or connected to a source/cause

To cutback something To reduce something, usually related to the amount of money spent

To use a lot of your physical, mental or financial resources to achieve

To dig deep
something

Great growth A positive change in the production of goods or services

Root and branch Completely/utter

Seed money Money that is used to start a small business or other activity

Bright shoot Start something new, a new chapter

Plough its own furrow To follow a plan or course of action independently

Green fingers Have an ability to make plants grow, to be good at gardening

To argue that something is the best thing to do, to explain and give
Build/make a good case
reasons why something should be done

A fabrication To tell lies about something, completely made-up/invented

To be confident about the topic you are dealing with, or because you are
To be on solid ground
in a safe situation

Build on To use something as a base or foundation to develop something else

Shattered To break something into a smaller form or into many pieces

Undermine your position Behave in a way that makes you less likely to succeed

To break down someone’s argument to an extent that it is no longer

Demolish your arguments
accurate or correct

Constructive criticism Criticism that is useful because they can help improve something

A reason for you to be dismissed from your job, often due to your
Grounds for dismissal
(negative) behavior

Completely groundless Not based on any good reason

Grounded in fact Something that is based on facts

Come to light To be revealed

Unearthed To find something that was lost or forgotten

A mine of information/gossip/data Someone or something that can provide you with a lot of information etc.

Get to the bottom of Find an explanation, often to a mystery

Idiom Meaning

Digging into To methodically reveal information

To bury the memory To try to hide something, such as a memory, the truth etc.

Emerge Something that is brought to attention

Out in the open In public view or knowledge, everybody knows

An alternative culture, different from the mainstream of society and

Underground scene
culture

Transparency Something that can be seen by everyone/the public

Crystal clear Perfectly easy to understand

Put your head in the sand To ignore or hide from the obvious signs of danger

Bright spark Someone that is highly intelligent

Enlightenment To understand something completely

Throw light on something To reveal something about someone/something, to clarify something

Dull Something that lacks imagination, boring

Brilliant Shining brightly, stands out, illustrious

In the dark A state of ignorance, to not have knowledge about something

Dim-witted Something/someone that thinks slowly, lacks intelligence

When something was not understood, a time when knowledge was

Dark ages
limited

Illuminating To make something more understandable

A part of a political group that consists of people who support

Right-wing
conservative or traditional ideas

Look down upon To view someone or something as unworthy

Side of the fence Refers to either side of opposing views or ideas

Political landscape The current state of things and how they are looking in the future

Look at life How you observe things that happen, your opinion on daily matters

Behind you all the way To fully support someone’s actions

Point of view An opinion on something

 Idiom Meaning

A clearer view of something, a more thorough understanding of a

Better perspective
situation

Take someone’s side To support one person’s side of an argument

Where I stand Your opinion, point of view

Look up to To respect someone as a role model

The status of being respected, a position of being ‘more’ moral than

Moral high ground
others

Sitting on the fence Undecided on a decision, avoid making a decision on something

A typical ESL student is both fascinated and frustrated by idioms; they give you fluency but are very hard

to use accurately because:

 They may change meaning if you forget or change a single word.

 You must use them in the right context – don’t say ‘he’s kicked the bucket’  (died) at a funeral!

 You can’t translate them into, or from, another language. There is no literal translation.

7 Ways to Make English Idioms and Phrases Easier to Understand:

1. Listen to context.

2. Check to see if you understood.

3. Be honest when you don’t understand.

4. Never translate idioms.

5. Listen to how native speakers use idioms.

6. Take notes.

7. Tolerate your mistakes.

Learn English Idiomatic Expressions without Memorizing

English Expressions About Life:

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” – so said Lao Tzu, the founder of Chinese

Taoism.

When he said these wise words, he wasn’t just offering encouragement to people who had to walk long

distances in Zhou Dynasty China during the 6th BC, but was talking about every kind of journey in life.

The quotation is generally taken to mean that any undertaking in life – even really big ones – must start

with small steps, and that we must not become discouraged by the size of the tasks in front of us. The

idea that our tasks, and indeed our lives, can be seen as physical journeys that can be broken down into

steps is common in many languages; English is no exception.

So we might set out on a new career, saunter through life without a care, follow in someone’s

footsteps or take a difficult task one step at a time.

And just as the physical hikes, strolls or walks that we go on require paths or roads, which can be straight

or winding, and sometimes lead to dead ends – so it is with our projects, careers and lives.

This means that some of us want to follow a clear career path, are proud of the milestones we achieve

and don’t want to work in a dead end job. When deciding on a course of action we might find ourselves

at a crossroads in life, wondering which way to turn, hoping we don’t take the road to ruin!

Examples of idiomatic expressions about life:

 He’s put his criminal past behind him – He’s on the straight and narrow now!

 It’s a difficult system to get used to, so let me just walk you through the first few steps.

 We need to come up with a road map to go forward with these negotiations.

 Being selected for the national team was the first major milestone in my career.
  So you want to invest in his business? I wouldn’t go down that road if I were you!

 I feel like I’m at a crossroads in my career and I’m not sure which way to turn.

 I have tried to follow in Dad’s footsteps and to do the right things.

 I suppose I’ve gone down quite a winding career path – I’ve never done things the easy way!

 Holmes had crossed paths with Moriarty several times before and it had never gone well.

 I know I said you should read a bit more, but War and Peace? Don’t run before you can walk!

Please note that we use the imperial system, rather than the modern metric system, to refer to distances

in idioms:

 We are just inching forward with this project at a snail’s pace.

 I think I can get good mileage out of this idea.

Notice the way that prepositions are used to imply movement or direction in life:

 He envied his grandchildren having their whole lives in front of them.

 I always try and put failures behind me and get on with my life.

Also, if we are traveling along a road or pathway, we might expect to find obstacles to our progress and

have to handle them in some way:

 We need to tread carefully here because ethnic tensions in the area can be a minefield.

 I don’t know yet what we’ll do if they reject our offer – but we’ll cross that bridge when we

come to it.

And please note that idioms involving roads can refer to other things:

 The information superhighway has changed the way we think about the world.

English Expressions About Money:

When Benjamin Franklyn wrote that ‘time is money’ in his Advice to a Young Tradesman in 1746, he

meant that time was a commodity which can be treated the same way that we treat money or any other
resource. He was right too, from a linguistic perspective anyway, as we have long had this attitude

towards time within the English language.

Like money, time is something that we save, waste or spend. We praise good time management, we

complain that we don’t have enough time, and we wonder how long our time will last. Let’s look at the way

the English language treats the concepts of time and money.

Examples of English Expressions About Money:

Look at these sentences and decide if you can substitute the word ‘time’ for the word ‘money’ (you may

have to make a few extra changes):

 We will have to go soon – we are getting short of money.

 I have wasted a lot of time on this project.

 We made some changes at work to save money.

 He is determined to make it work – he’s invested so much time in the business already.

 He worked my shift at work for me – so I guess I owe him some time in return.

 I would like to devote more time to keeping the garden in shape.

 This problem has cost us too much money already!

 We are living on borrowed time.

 I thought I gave him enough money – but he seems to have squandered it all!

 She’s always had better money-management skills than me.

In most of the sentences above you can substitute ‘time’ for ‘money’ without a problem. The context may

change, but the sentences themselves still look fine.

Please note that we can replace the actual word ‘time’ with an amount of time – and we can do this with

‘money’ too:

 We spent three weeks there.

 I spent $50 on it.

 It takes half an hour to get there.

  It took $100 to convince him!

English Expressions About Knowledge:

What is the basic unit of knowledge – a fact, a truth, a maxim or a law? Well, from a computing point of

view it is called a ‘byte’. In 1956 Werner Buchholz, a computer scientist working at IBM, wanted a term he

could use to describe the eight binary digits (bits) needed to encode a single letter, number or symbol on

a computer.

He chose the word ‘byte’ – a deliberate misspelling of the word ‘bite’ – and this term now refers to the

basic unit of all the information held on all computers, everywhere. When he chose this word, Buchholz

was (perhaps unknowingly) using a very common, basic and important idiom in the English language;

knowledge (or information) is food.

If you think about it, this idiom is quite easy to understand; information exists in the outside world and

must somehow comes inside us so that we can learn and understand it.

This process of bringing information into ourselves can be thought of as eating. So we might hear a tasty

bit of gossip or devour a newspaper, we may need to add a pinch of salt to unlikely stories, chew

over a difficult subject, or digest information – we may even need to spit information out if required!

Examples of English Expressions about

Knowledge:
 He absolutely devours newspapers – he gets about three every morning!

 You have a great appetite for knowledge, and I respect that.

 I won’t give you an answer yet – Let me chew it over for a while.

 Who broke the school window? Come on lad – spit it out!

 I got my dad a subscription to The Reader’s Digest.

  She always exaggerates so if I were you I’d take what she says with a pinch of salt.

 Don’t give them too much information at the start of the course – just bite-sized chunks for now.

 We sat with a bottle by the river ruminating on the meaning of life.

 The exam system is terrible – you just have to regurgitate the textbook, basically.

 Information is food? – I’m not swallowing that!

Please note that idiomatic expressions involving food or eating can express other meanings in English, for

example if you bite off more than you can chew, you try to do too much or more than you are able to

do; or if you eat your own words, you retract what you said earlier:

 He bit off more than he could chew when he agreed to paint the house by himself.

 He’s going to regret saying that – I’m going to make him eat his own words!

Don’t try making a literal translation of those! And choices, for example, have taste:

 I can offer you a couple of tasty options from our new winter collection.

 The delegates are being forced to choose between two unpalatable candidates.

English Expressions About Relationships:

Here is a party game that I used to play with friends and family when I was young (a long time ago!) It

involves somebody hiding something, and somebody else searching for it.

Firstly, I would close my eyes or leave the room. Then someone would hide something, some keys

perhaps, in some part of the room. After this I would be allowed to look for them and the rest of the

players could offer encouragement by saying; ‘You’re getting warmer,’ when I approached the hidden

object, or; ‘You’re getting colder,’ when I went in the wrong direction.

When I got really close to the hidden keys, some of the younger children would be shouting ‘You’re really

hot now – boiling!’ And finally I would find the keys under a magazine on the coffee table!
The idea that you get warmer when you are closer to something is quite common in English and is

particularly strong when applied to our relationships with each other. Heat is a metaphor for how close we

feel to someone else, and how well we think they are treating us.

Close relationships are ‘warm’, and unfriendly relationships are ‘cold’. This means that if I say that the

receptionist at the hotel greeted me very warmly, you can be sure that she was very friendly and

welcoming. Equally, if I tell you that the audience gave me a frosty reception, you will know that my

lecture was not a great success!

So we can say that our relationships and feelings have some sort of ‘linguistic temperature!’

Examples of English Idioms about relationships:

 Hello – and a very warm welcome to the show!

 I tried to explain to her but she just gave me the cold shoulder.

 Perhaps you should cool things off with him for a while.

 I think things are heating up between Dave and Mary!

 She was a very cold-hearted mother who never gave us hugs or praise.

 We have set up a 24-hour hotline for anyone who wants more information.

 Well, that was a very frosty reception – I don’t think we’re very welcome here!

 The cold war was a low point in East-West relations in Europe.

 She liked him immediately; it was the warm smile and the warm handshake.

 I can’t stand these cold callers trying to sell me things I don’t want!

Notice that heat can also describe our relationship to ideas:

 We took the temperature of the group as to whether John would be a suitable replacement for

Mark and found that most people were quite warm to the idea.

English Expressions About Economics

In Hal Ashby’s excellent 1979 comedy ‘Being There’, Peter Sellers plays the part of a simple-minded

gardener who accidentally becomes a top financial adviser in Washington DC.

One of the running jokes in the film is the way that Sellers’ character misunderstands questions about the

economy to be questions about his garden – and how businessmen and television presenters mistake his

answers and comments about gardening to be sound financial advice!

How can this be? Well, in the English language there are many words and expressions that we use in

agriculture and gardening that can also be used to describe the world of economics and business. After

all, if a gardener and an economist meet at a party, we can be sure they’ll agree with each other that

encouraging growth is a good idea!

Examples of English Expressions About

Economics:

 If you work hard now, you’ll reap the rewards later.

 We needed to prune out the deadwood to make the company more competitive.

 The first stage of the interview process is really just to separate the wheat from the chaff – to

discount the applicants who are definitely unsuitable.

 Our main business is rooted in this sector.

 There have been sharp staff cutbacks since they lost the contract.

 We will have to dig deep if we want this project to succeed.

 There has been great growth over the second quarter.

 The company was in a terrible state – we needed to make root and branch reform.

 We have invested a lot of seed money in this project.

 After the recession we can now see the first bright shoots of recovery, with several new

businesses opening around town.

Please note that many of the above phrases can be used in other contexts; for example, ‘dig deep’

simply means ‘try harder’ and can be used in any situation where more effort is required;
  Liverpool are going to have to dig deep here if they are going to win this match.

Also, some agricultural idioms can be used in non-business contexts:

 The entire university should act as one on this issue, rather than each department trying

to plough its own furrow.

And some gardening idioms don’t seem to transfer to other contexts:

 I’ve killed every plant I’ve ever owned. But she has got really green fingers, you should see her

garden – it’s beautiful!

Ok, that should really help you with business English.

English Expressions About Opinions

‘The wise man builds his house on the rock,’ – so goes the traditional saying (it’s loosely based on

Matthew 7:24-27 in the Bible), but while it is certainly wise to build a house on solid ground, and with the

proper materials, this saying is generally taken to be about the foundations of our beliefs.

In fact there has always been a close link between buildings and beliefs; for example, the word ‘church’

originally referred to a group of people who worshipped together (now more commonly called a

‘congregation’), the teachings and philosophy they followed, and the physical building that they used.

Keeping this mind (and checking your dictionary for details) it won’t be surprising for you to find that the

word ‘edifice’ refers to an important or imposing building (like a church), ‘edification’ means ‘moral

improvement’ and ‘edified’ means ‘educated’ or ‘informed’.

This idiom now has a wider use in the English language so that an idiomatic phrase mentioning

construction or foundation can refer to knowledge and ideas generally. So ideas and theories should

be grounded in fact or based on truth, an argument should have a clear structure; we

can deconstruct a complex idea in order to explain it, or even demolish ideas which we strongly

disagree with.

English Expressions About Knowledge:

 With so much supporting evidence, the police can build a good case for conviction.

 He is such an unreliable witness – his entire testimony was a fabrication of lies and half-truths.

 I feel like I am on pretty solid ground when I’m talking about my thesis.

 Our products are strong on reliability and we can build on this foundation in the future.

 His essay was terrible – there was no structure to the argument.

 His reputation has been completely shattered by these baseless accusations.

 If she is taking bribes, it completely undermines her position on corruption.

 She won the debate easily – she just demolished their arguments!

 I welcome any constructive criticisms of my work.

‘Ground’ is the most commonly used word in this context:

 Being rude to customers is grounds for dismissal.

 These allegations are completely groundless and are just intended to disrupt our preparations

for the Games.

 Is any of this grounded in fact?

English Expressions About Truth:

In Steven Spielberg’s excellent 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones must find the Ark of the

Covenant.

This was a kind of box which was supposed to contain the 10 commandments that were given to Moses.

There’s something symbolic in this – if you consider that the commandments represent some kind of

universal truth or wisdom, then perhaps you can see the search for the covenant as a search for truth.
I used to work as an archaeologist and watching this excellent movie was more or less compulsory for us

‘diggers’ at the time – we used to joke that Indy was searching for truth itself and that an archaeologist

was the ideal person to choose for a search for truth and wisdom!

But you don’t need to get your hands dirty to unearth interesting information, because in the English

language, any kind of discovery can be made under the ground.

It often seems that an investigation is an excavation: information may be hidden from us, perhaps buried

deep somewhere; it needs to be dug around for, and finally brought to light.

English Expressions About Truth:

 I want you to dig deep into your memories and think about your first day at school.

 The Police have reopened the case after new evidence came to light.

 I’ve been working in the archives for the last few months and have unearthed some interesting

stories about him.

 Ask Mary – she’s a mine of information on the subject!

 They have started an investigation and hope to get to the bottom of the problem soon.

 I don’t want the newspapers digging into my private life.

 She had tried to bury the memory of it for years.

 New developments in the scandal emerged over the weekend.

 I think we need to get things out in the open and talk about them honestly.

 The city is home to a vibrant underground music scene.

When a meaning is obvious and easy to understand we use a reversal of the idiom:

 We need new financial transparency regulations.

 I understand you – your message is crystal clear.

Interestingly, if we have an exam to prepare for or a bill to pay, many of us adopt a very interesting

strategy – often called the ‘Ostrich method!‘

  This is no way to run a company – whenever there’s a problem you just put your head in the

sand and hope it will go away!

English Expressions About Intelligence

Imagine that you are in a college lecture and that your teacher is trying to explain something that the class

have been having difficulty with. Maybe a tough equation, a difficult moral problem or a poem that nobody

understands.

Finally the teacher shows, proves or says something that finally makes everybody understand; everything

now makes sense! Around the room, people nod in agreement; some raise their eyebrows and smile; the

mood in the room lifts – as if some new bright light is now shining.

This is called a ‘light-bulb moment’ and it’s the moment when we conceive or understand a (usually

good) idea for the first time. It’s quite a common idiomatic expression; The Oxford Dictionary defines it as

‘A moment of sudden realization, enlightenment, or inspiration’ and it is a powerful image.

For example, we often see cartoon characters with light-bulbs above their heads when they have a new

idea, or come to understand something.

The idea that understanding (and, as we will see, intelligence) can be expressed as light is very common

in English; people have bright, ideas, become brilliant scholars, shine a light on things when they

explain them, and achieve enlightenment.

This idiom also works in reverse; in English, darkness often refers to different types of ignorance. We

get kept in the dark when people don’t tell us a secret; we make dim-witted mistakes, and we walk out

of dull movies.

Examples of English Expressions about

Intelligence:
  John came top of his class in all of his tests again – he’s a real bright spark!

 People come from all over the world to find enlightenment at the meditation centre.

 The recent discovery of King Richard’s body has thrown light on his actual cause of death.

 This film is really dull – when is something interesting going to happen?

 He was always a brilliant student and it was no surprise when he won the scholarship.

 New evidence has recently come to light that could lead to further charges in the case.

 Let’s keep Sarah in the dark about it for now – she loves a good surprise.

 I think that his political supporters are pretty dim-witted, they don’t seem to know much about the

world.

 These kinds of injuries were more common back in the Dark Ages of NFL concussion

awareness.

 Well that was a very illuminating lecture – I think I really get it now!

English Expressions About Opinions

What is a political map and why might we need one? In some countries there seem to be so many

different political parties and points of view that things can become rather confusing for voters at election

time – so maybe some kind of map would be useful.

But why a map – why not a list, or a diagram?

Perhaps the reason is that we imagine a political landscape where people stand in particular places

that indicate their opinions on particular issues. For example, in most democratic parliaments the political

parties sit together in particular parts of the room that they meet in.

The prime minister sits in a seat at the front of his grouping with his supporters behind him and with the

opposition politicians sitting opposite. The minor parties usually sit according to whether they support the

government or not – which side they are on. This is why we can talk about right – or left-wing politics, and

how we can take a position on an issue, stand behind someone we agree with, or change sides in an

argument.
Interestingly, if I express my opinion by standing in a particular location then this will effect what I can see,

what my view of the world is. So I can see things differently from other people, have a positive

outlook, look up to – or down on people, or describe my point of view of a situation or issue.

Examples of English Expressions About

Opinions:

 I don’t want him to come to dinner – he has very right-wing views.

 I think the royal family look down on us all.

 How are things on your side of the political fence?

 There has always been a complex political landscape in the country.

 Artists and musicians often look at life in new and interesting ways.

 We’ll give you all the support you need – we’re behind you all the way.

 From my point of view, I think that it’s a very good deal.

 We need more information to give us a better perspective of this situation.

 It’s not fair – whenever there’s an argument you always take his side!

Notice that ‘stand’ can be used in both senses:

 From where I stand it looks like the economy is going nowhere.

 Where do you stand on nuclear energy?

Perhaps it’s not surprising to note that altitude affects morals:

 I’ve always looked up to my Mum; she’s been an inspiration to me.

 I think we hold the moral high ground on this issue.

Also, the two sides of an argument are often separated by some kind of barrier:

 He’s always sitting on the fence whenever there’s an argument.