Idioms

Weather

• Under the weatherFeeling a little sick or tired; a polite way to say you are not at your best.
• Raining cats and dogsRaining very hard, past what an umbrella can hold.

Feelings

• Bite the bulletDo something hard or unpleasant bravely, because putting it off will not help.
• Kick the bucketA casual way to say “to die”; kinder words are better when a real person has died.
• On cloud nineVery happy, as if floating high above the ground.
• Speak of the devilSaid smiling when the person you name walks in.
• The last strawThe small final trouble after which patience breaks.

Food and animals

• Cold turkeyStopping a habit all at once, with no slow reduction and no help.
• Curiosity killed the catA friendly warning that asking too many questions or poking into private things can cause trouble.
• Spill the beansTell a secret, usually by mistake or before it was meant to be told.
• Piece of cakeVery easy; sweet, soft and gone in a moment.
• When pigs flyIt will not happen; pigs will not soar, and that is the joke.
• Let the cat out of the bagTo spill a secret by mistake, past putting back.

Work

• Beat around the bushAvoid saying the main point straight out, usually because it feels awkward.
• Elephant in the roomA big, obvious problem that people avoid talking about.
• Burn the midnight oilWork or study very late into the night, usually to finish something on time.
• Break the iceTo ease tension at the start, so people relax and talk.
• Barking up the wrong treeTo follow a wrong idea; the dog barks at an empty tree.
• Throw in the towelTo give up and stop trying, as a coach ends a fight.
• Hit the nail on the headTo say exactly the right thing, like one clean hit.
• Call it a dayTo stop for the day, because the job is done or all are tired.
• The whole nine yardsEverything, all the way; the full effort with nothing left out.
• The ball is in your courtYour turn to act; the next move sits with you.
• Back to square oneStarting over from the start, as a bad throw sends you back.
• Under the radarUnnoticed, like a plane too low for the radar.
• Cut cornersTo skimp on care to save time, and pay for it later.

Time

• Once in a blue moonVery rarely; something that happens only now and then.
• Hit the sackTo go to bed; an old word for falling onto the mattress.
• Better late than neverArriving late beats not arriving; glad you came, however slow.

Money

• A dime a dozenVery common and ordinary, so nothing special.

How this list is arranged

The idioms are grouped by theme. The themes are work, money, weather, feelings, food and animals, and time. A theme is a place to start, not a rule.

“Burn the midnight oil” sits with work because its meaning is working late, which is usually a job or a study task. It is also about time.

A theme shows as a button only when the list has an idiom for it, so some themes fill up as more idioms are added. Use a button to show one group, or type a word in the box to find a phrase by its meaning.

Every idiom page follows the same plan, so you can find each part quickly. First comes one sentence that says what the phrase means. Then come two examples that you can listen to and a quick check of three questions.

After that you will find notes on how the phrase sounds in Australia, the UK and the US. Further down you will find what the words say and what the phrase really means, common mistakes, and other ways to say the same thing.

All the wording on these pages is written by EasySay in plain English. It is not copied from a dictionary or from another website.

Notes about who can say what, and in which country, are a judgement, so a person reads each one before a page is released. If you think a note is wrong, use the Report a mistake link at the bottom of the page.

The quiz near the top asks ten questions, and each one is about a different idiom from this list. Answer one at a time and read the short reason after each check.

The Quick check keeps no score and has no timer. If a question is hard, open that idiom’s page and try its own three questions.