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| id | category | idiom | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 | Colours | Boys in blue | The boys in blue are the police. |
| 1002 | Colours | Brown as a berry | Someone who is very sun tanned is brown as a berry. |
| 1003 | Colours | Browned off | To be tired of or fed up with |
| 1004 | Colours | Catch someone red-handed | If someone is caught red-handed, they are found doing something wrong or illegal. |
| 1005 | Colours | Color bar | Rules that restrict access on the? basis of race or ethnicity are a color bar. |
| 1006 | Colours | Feeling blue | If you feel blue, you are feeling unwell, mainly associated with depression or unhappiness. |
| 1007 | Colours | Go blue | If you go blue, you are very cold indeed. (Turn blue is an alternative form.) |
| 1008 | Colours | Great white hope | Someone who is expected to be a great success is a great white hope. |
| 1009 | Colours | Green around the gills | If someone looks green around the gills, they look ill. |
| 1010 | Colours | Green fingers | (UK) Someone with green fingers has a talent for gardening. |
| 1011 | Colours | Green light | If you are given the green light, you are given approval to do something. |
| 1012 | Colours | Green thumb | (USA) Someone with a talent for gardening has a green thumb. |
| 1013 | Colours | Green with envy | If you are green with envy, you are very jealous. |
| 1014 | Colours | Green-eyed monster | The green-eyed monster is an allegorical phrase for somebodys strong jealousy |
| 1015 | Colours | Greenhorn | A greenhorn or someone who is described simply as green lacks the relevant experience and knowledge for their job or task |
| 1016 | Colours | Grey area | A grey/gray area is one where there is no clear right or wrong. |
| 1017 | Colours | Grey Cardinal | Someone who is a Grey Cardinal exerts power behind the scenes, without drawing attention to himself or herself. |
| 1018 | Colours | Grey matter | Grey/gray matter is the human brain. |
| 1019 | Colours | Grey pound | (UK) In the UK, the grey pound is an idiom for the economic power of elderly people. |
| 1020 | Colours | Hot as blue blazes | If somethings as hot as blue blazes, its extremely hot. |
| 1021 | Colours | In the black | If your bank account is in credit, it is in the black. |
| 1022 | Colours | In the pink | If you are in very good health, you are in the pink. |
| 1023 | Colours | In the red | If your bank account is overdrawn, it is in the red. |
| 1024 | Colours | Jet-black | To emphasise just how black something is, such as someones hair, we can call it jet-black. |
| 1025 | Colours | Like white on rice | (USA) If you do something like white on rice, you do it very closely: When Bob found out I had front row tickets for the concert, he stuck to me like white on rice. |
| 1026 | Colours | Off colour | If someone looks off colour/color, they look ill. |
| 1027 | Colours | Once in a blue moon | If something happens once in a blue moon, it happens very rarely indeed. |
| 1028 | Colours | Out of the blue | If something happens out of the blue, it happens suddenly and unexpectedly. |
| 1029 | Colours | Paint the town red | If you go out for a night out with lots of fun and drinking, you paint the town red. |
| 1030 | Colours | Pink slip | If someone receives a pink slip, they receive a letter telling them they have lost their job. |
| 1031 | Colours | Pot calling the kettle black | If someone hypocritically criticises a person for something that they themselves do, then it is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. |
| 1032 | Colours | Purple patch | A purple patch is a period of time when someone or something is successful and doing well. |
| 1033 | Colours | Put more green into something | (USA) To put more green into something is to spend more or to increase investment in it. |
| 1034 | Colours | Ragged blue line | (USA) This term was used to signify the Union forces (who wore blue uniforms) in the American Civil war . |
| 1035 | Colours | Red letter day | A red letter day is a one of good luck, when something special happens to you. |
| 1036 | Colours | Red light district | The red light district is the area of a town or city where there is prostitution, sex shops, etc. |
| 1037 | Colours | Red mist | If someone sees red or the red mist, they lose their temper and self-control completely. |
| 1038 | Colours | Red rag to a bull | If something is a red rag to a bull, it is something that will inevitably make somebody angry or cross. |
| 1039 | Colours | Red tape | This is a negative term for the official paperwork and bureaucracy that we have to deal with. |
| 1040 | Colours | Reds under the bed | An ironic allusion to the obsession some people have that there are reds (communists) everywhere plotting violent revolution. |
| 1041 | Colours | Roll out the red carpet | If you roll out the red carpet, you treat someone in a special way, especially when welcoming them. |
| 1042 | Colours | Rose-colored glasses | If people see things through rose-colored (coloured) glasses, they see them in a more positive light than they really are. |
| 1043 | Colours | Rose-tinted glasses | If people see things through rose-tinted glasses, they see them in a more positive light than they really are. |
| 1044 | Colours | Sail under false colours | Someone who sails under false colours (colors) is hypocritical or pretends to be something they arent in order to deceive people. |
| 1045 | Colours | Scarlet woman | This idiom is used as a pejorative term for a sexually promiscuous woman, especially an adulteress. |
| 1046 | Colours | Scream blue murder | If someone shouts very loudly in anger, or fear, they scream blue murder. |
| 1047 | Colours | See red | If someone sees red, they become very angry about something. |
| 1048 | Colours | Show your true colors | To show your true colors is to reveal yourself as you really are. |
| 1049 | Colours | Talk a blue streak | (USA) If someone talks a blue streak, they speak quickly and at length. (Talk up a blue streak is also used.) |
| 1050 | Colours | Thin blue line | (UK) The thin blue line is a term for the police, suggesting that they stand between an ordered society and potential chaos. (Police uniforms are blue.) |
| 1051 | Colours | Tickled pink | If you are very pleased about something, you are tickled pink. |
| 1052 | Colours | Till you're blue in the face | If you do something till youre blue in the face, you do it repeatedly without achieving the desired result until youre incredibly frustrated. |
| 1053 | Colours | True blue | A person who is true blue is loyal and dependable, someone who can be relied on in all circumstances. |
| 1054 | Colours | True colours | If someone shows their true colours, they show themselves as they really are. (True colors is the American spelling.) |
| 1055 | Colours | Under false colours | If someone does something under false colours/colors, they pretend to be something they are not in order to deceive people so that they can succeed. |
| 1056 | Colours | Walk the green mile | Someone or something that is walking the green mile is heading towards the inevitable. |
| 1057 | Colours | White as a sheet | A bad shock can make somebody go as white as a sheet. |
| 1058 | Colours | White feather | If someone shows a white feather, they are cowards. |
| 1059 | Colours | White lie | If you tell a white lie, you lie in order not to hurt someones feelings. |
| 1060 | Colours | With flying colours (colors) | If you pass something with flying colours (colors), you pass easily, with a very high mark or grade. |
| 1061 | Colours | Yellow press | The yellow press is a term for the popular and sensationalist newspapers. |
| 1062 | Colours | Yellow streak | If someone has a yellow streak, they are cowardly about something. |
| 1063 | Colours | Yellow-bellied | A yellow-bellied person is a coward. |
| 1064 | Death | At death's door | If someone looks as if they are at deaths door, they look seriously unwell and might actually be dying. |
| 1065 | Death | Bite the dust | This is a way of saying that somebody has died, especially if they are killed violently like a soldier in battle. |
| 1066 | Death | Breathe your last | When you breathe your last, you die. |
| 1067 | Death | Cheat death | If someone cheats death, they narrowly avoid a major problem or accident. |
| 1068 | Death | Dancing on someone's grave | If you will dance on someones grave, you will outlive or outlast them and will celebrate their demise. |
| 1069 | Death | Dead and buried | If something is dead and buried, it has all long been settled and is not going to be reconsidered. |
| 1070 | Death | Dead as a doornail | This is used to indicate that something is lifeless. |
| 1071 | Death | Dead even | If people competing are dead even, they are at exactly the same stage or moving at exactly the same speed. |
| 1072 | Death | Dead in the water | If something is dead in the water, it isnt going anywhere or making any progress. |
| 1073 | Death | Dead level best | If you try your dead level best,? you try as hard as you possibly could to do something. |
| 1074 | Death | Dead man walking | A dead man walking is someone who is in great trouble and will certainly get punished, lose their job or position, etc, soon. |
| 1075 | Death | Dead meat | This is used as a way of threatening someone: Youll be dead meat if you dont go along. |
| 1076 | Death | Dead right | This means that something or someone is absolutely correct, without doubt. |
| 1077 | Death | Dead to the world | If somebodys fast asleep and completely unaware of what if happening around them, he or shes dead to the world. |
| 1078 | Death | Dead wrong | If someone is dead wrong, they are absolutely in error, absolutely incorrect or of incorrect opinion. |
| 1079 | Death | Death of a thousand cuts | If something is suffering the death of a thousand cuts, or death by a thousand cuts, lots of small bad things are happening, none of which are fatal in themselves, but which add up to a slow and painful demise. |
| 1080 | Death | Death warmed up | (UK) If someone looks like death warmed up, they look very ill indeed. (death warmed over is the American form) |
| 1081 | Death | Done to death | If a joke or story has been done to death, it has been told so often that it has stopped being funny. |
| 1082 | Death | Fall on your sword | If someone falls on their sword, they resign or accept the consequences of some wrongdoing. |
| 1083 | Death | Fate worse than death | Describing something as a fate worse than death is a fairly common way of implying that it is unpleasant. |
| 1084 | Death | Ghost of a chance | If something or someone hasnt got a ghost of a chance, they have no hope whatsoever of succeeding. |
| 1085 | Death | Ghostly presence | You can feel or otherwise sense a ghostly presence, but you cannot do it clearly only vaguely. |
| 1086 | Death | Give someone enough rope | If you give someone enough rope, you give them the chance to get themselves into trouble or expose themselves. (The full form is give someone enough rope and theyll hang themselves) |
| 1087 | Death | Give up the ghost | People give up the ghost when they die.? Machines stop working when they give up the ghost. |
| 1088 | Death | Grass widow | A grass widow is a woman whose husband is often away on work, leaving her on her own. |
| 1089 | Death | Graveyard shift | If you have to work very late at night, it is the graveyard shift. |
| 1090 | Death | It's your funeral | The other person has made a decision that you think is bad. However, it is their choice; it is their funeral. |
| 1091 | Death | Kiss of death | The kiss of death is an action that means failure or ruin for someone, a scheme, a plan, etc. |
| 1092 | Death | Knock 'em dead | Knock em dead is used as a way of wishing someone luck before they give a performance or have to appear before people, as in an interview, etc. (em = them) |
| 1093 | Death | Know where all the bodies are buried | Someone who by virtue of holding a position of trust with an organization for a long period of time has come to know many of the secrets that others in more powerful positions would rather be kept secret knows where the bodies are buried. An implication is that the person knowing these secrets will use that knowledge to secure something of value for him- or herself. |
| 1094 | Death | Life and limb | When people risk life and limb, they could be killed or suffer serious injuries. |
| 1095 | Death | Matter of life and death | If something is a matter of life and death, it is extremely important. |
| 1096 | Death | Meet your Maker | If someone has gone to meet their Maker, they have died. |
| 1097 | Death | Murder will out | This idiom means that bad deeds cant be kept secret forever. |
| 1098 | Death | Nail in the coffin | A nail in someone or somethings coffin is a problem or event that is a clear step towards an inevitable failure. |
| 1099 | Death | Never say die | When someone says "Never Say Die", it means that you shouldnt give up hope. |
| 1100 | Death | Over my dead body | If you say that something will happen over your dead body, you will not let it happen. |
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