1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47
| id | category | idiom | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2401 | Animals | Cute as a bug | (USA) If something is as cute as a bug, it is sweet and endearing. |
| 2402 | Animals | Dark horse | If someone is a dark horse, they are a bit of a mystery. |
| 2403 | Animals | Dead as a dodo | If somethings dead as a dodo, it is lifeless and dull. The dodo was a bird that lived the island of Mauritius. It couldnt fly and was hunted to extinction. |
| 2404 | Animals | Dead duck | If something is a dead duck, it is a failure. |
| 2405 | Animals | Deer in the headlights | When one is caught offguard and needs to make a decision, but cannot react quickly. |
| 2406 | Animals | Dinosaur | A dinosaur is a person who is thought to be too old for their position. |
| 2407 | Animals | Dirty dog | A dirty dog is an untrustworthy person. |
| 2408 | Animals | Dog and pony show | (USA) A dog and pony show is a presentation or some marketing that has lots of style, but no real content. |
| 2409 | Animals | Dog days | Dog days are very hot summer days. |
| 2410 | Animals | Dog eat dog | In a dog eat dog world, there is intense competition and rivalry, where everybody thinks only of himself or herself. |
| 2411 | Animals | Dog in the manger | (UK) If someone acts like a dog in the manger, they dont want other people to have or enjoy things that are useless to them. |
| 2412 | Animals | Dog tired | If you are dog tired, you are exhausted. |
| 2413 | Animals | Dog's dinner | Something that is a dogs dinner is a real mess. |
| 2414 | Animals | Dog's life | If some has a dogs life, they have a very unfortunate and wretched life. |
| 2415 | Animals | Dog-eared | If a book is dog-eared, it is in bad condition, with torn pages, etc. |
| 2416 | Animals | Doggy bag | If you ask for a doggy bag in a restaurant, they will pack the food you havent eaten for you to take home. |
| 2417 | Animals | Don't catch your chickens before they're hatched | This means that you should wait until you know whether something has produced the results you desire, rather than acting beforehand. (Dont count your chickens until theyve hatched is an alternative.) |
| 2418 | Animals | Don't look a gift horse in the mouth | This means that if you are given something, a present or a chance, you should not waste it by being too critical or examining it too closely. |
| 2419 | Animals | Donkey work | Donkey work is any hard, boring work or task. |
| 2420 | Animals | Donkey's years | This idiom means a very long time. |
| 2421 | Animals | Drink like a fish | If someone drinks like a fish, they drink far too much alcohol. |
| 2422 | Animals | Drop like flies | This means that something is disappearing very quickly. For example, if you said people were dropping like flies, it would mean that they were dying off, quitting or giving up something rapidly. |
| 2423 | Animals | Drunker than a peach orchard boar | (USA) Southern US expression - Very drunk, as when a boar would eat fermented peaches that have fallen from the tree. |
| 2424 | Animals | Duck to water | If you take to something like a duck to water, you find when you start that you have a natural affinity for it. |
| 2425 | Animals | Ducks in a row | (USA) If you have your ducks in a row, you are well-organized. |
| 2426 | Animals | Eager beaver | A person who is extremely keen is an eager beaver. |
| 2427 | Animals | Eagle eyes | Someone who has eagle eyes sees everything; no detail is too small. |
| 2428 | Animals | Early bird catches the worm | The early bird catches the worm means that if you start something early, you stand a better chance of success. |
| 2429 | Animals | Eat crow | (USA) If you eat crow, you have to admit that you were wrong about something. |
| 2430 | Animals | Eat like a bird | If someone eats like a bird, they eat very little. |
| 2431 | Animals | Eat like a horse | Someone who eats like a horse, eats a lot. |
| 2432 | Animals | Eat like a pig | If some eats like a pig, they either eat too much or they have bad table manners. |
| 2433 | Animals | Elephant in the room | An elephant in the room is a problem that everyone knows very well but no one talks about because it is taboo, embarrassing, etc. |
| 2434 | Animals | Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while | This expression means that even if people are ineffective or misguided, sometimes they can still be correct just by being lucky. |
| 2435 | Animals | Even the dogs in the street know | (Irish) This idiom is used frequently in Ireland, and means something is so obvious that even the dogs in the street know it. |
| 2436 | Animals | Every ass likes to hear himself bray | This means that people like the sound of their own voice. |
| 2437 | Animals | Every dog has its day | This idiom means that everyone gets their moment to shine. |
| 2438 | Animals | Fat cat | A fat cat is a person who makes a lot of money and enjoys a privileged position in society. |
| 2439 | Animals | Feather your own nest | If someone feathers their own nest, they use their position or job for personal gain. |
| 2440 | Animals | Feathers fly | When people are fighting or arguing angrily, we can say that feathers are flying. |
| 2441 | Animals | Fish or cut bait | (USA) This idiom is used when you want to tell someone that it is time to take action. |
| 2442 | Animals | Fish out of water | If you are placed in a situation that is completely new to you and confuses you, you are like a fish out of water. |
| 2443 | Animals | Fishy | If there is something fishy about someone or something, there is something suspicious; a feeling that there is something wrong, though it isnt clear what it is. |
| 2444 | Animals | Fit as a butcher's dog | Someone whos very healthy, fit or physically attractive is as fit as a butchers dog. |
| 2445 | Animals | Flat out like a lizard drinking | (AU) An Australian idiom meaning extremely busy, which is a word play which humorously mixes two meanings of the term flat out. |
| 2446 | Animals | Flogging a dead horse | (UK) If someone is trying to convince people to do or feel something without any hope of succeeding, theyre flogging a dead horse. This is used when someone is trying to raise interest in an issue that no-one supports anymore; beating a dead horse will not make it do any more work. |
| 2447 | Animals | Fly in the ointment | A fly in the ointment is something that spoils or prevents complete enjoyment of something. |
| 2448 | Animals | Fly on the wall | If you are able to see and hear events as they happen, you are a fly on the wall. |
| 2449 | Animals | Fly the coop | When children leave home to live away from their parents, they fly the coop. |
| 2450 | Animals | For donkey's years | (UK) If people have done something, usually without much if any change, for an awfully long time, they can be said to have done it for donkeys years. |
| 2451 | Animals | For the birds | If something is worthless or ridiculous, it is for the birds. |
| 2452 | Animals | From the horse's mouth | If you hear something from the horses mouth, you hear it directly from the person concerned or responsible. |
| 2453 | Animals | Full as a tick | If you are as full as a tick, you have eaten too much. |
| 2454 | Animals | Get a sheepskin | Getting a sheepskin (or your sheepskin) means getting a degree or diploma. |
| 2455 | Animals | Get the monkey off your back | If you get the monkey off your back, you pass on a problem to someone else. |
| 2456 | Animals | Get your ducks in a row | If you get your ducks in a row, you organise yourself and your life. |
| 2457 | Animals | Get your feathers in a bunch | If you get your feathers in a bunch, you get upset or angry about something. |
| 2458 | Animals | Get your goat | If something gets your goat, it annoys you. |
| 2459 | Animals | Give a dog a bad name | A person who is generally known to have been guilty of some offence will always be suspected to be the author of all similar types of offence. Once someone has gained a bad reputation, it is very difficult to lose it. |
| 2460 | Animals | Glory hound | A glory hound is a person |
| 2461 | Animals | Go tell it to birds | This is used when someone says something that is not credible or is a lie. |
| 2462 | Animals | Go the whole hog | If you go the whole hog, you do something completely or to its limits. |
| 2463 | Animals | Gone fishing | If someone has gone fishing, they are not very aware of what is happening around them. |
| 2464 | Animals | Gone to the dogs | If something has gone to the dogs, it has gone badly wrong and lost all the good things it had. |
| 2465 | Animals | Grab the bull by its horns | If you grab (take) the bull by its horns, you deal head-on and directly with a problem. |
| 2466 | Animals | Grease monkey | A grease monkey is an idiomatic term for a mechanic. |
| 2467 | Animals | Grin like a Cheshire cat | If someone has a very wide smile, they have a grin like a Cheshire cat. |
| 2468 | Animals | Guinea-pig | If you are a guinea-pig, you take part in an experiment of some sort and are used in the testing. |
| 2469 | Animals | Hair of the dog | If someone has a hair of the dog, they have an alcoholic drink as a way of getting rid of a hangover, the unpleasant effects of having drunk too much alcohol the night before. It is commonly used as a way of excusing having a drink early on in the day. |
| 2470 | Animals | Hangdog expression | A hangdog expression is one where the persons showing their emotions very clearly, maybe a little too clearly for your liking. Its that mixture of misery and self-pity that is similar to a dog when its trying to get something it wants but darent take without permission. |
| 2471 | Animals | Hanged for a sheep as a lamb | This is an expression meaning that if you are going to get into trouble for doing something, then you ought to stop worrying and should try to get everything you can before you get caught. |
| 2472 | Animals | Hay is for horses | This idiom is used as a way of telling children not to say the word hey as in hey you or hey there. |
| 2473 | Animals | Healthy as a horse | If youre as healthy as a horse, youre very healthy. |
| 2474 | Animals | Herding cats | If you have to try to co-ordinate a very difficult situation, where people want to do very different things, you are herding cats. |
| 2475 | Animals | High on the hog | To live in great comfort with lots of money. |
| 2476 | Animals | Hive of worker bees | A hive of worker bees is a group of people working actively and cooperatively. Example: The classroom was a hive of worker bees. |
| 2477 | Animals | Hold your horses | If someone tells you to hold your horses, you are doing something too fast and they would like you to slow down. |
| 2478 | Animals | Hornets' nest | A hornets nest is a violent situation or one with a lot of dispute. (If you create the problem, you stir up a hornets nest.) |
| 2479 | Animals | Horse of a different color | (USA) If something is a horse of a different color, its a different matter or separate issue altogether. |
| 2480 | Animals | Horse trading | Horse trading is an idiom used to describe negotiations, especially where these are difficult and involve a lot of compromise. |
| 2481 | Animals | Hungry as a bear | If you are hungry as a bear, it means that you are really hungry. |
| 2482 | Animals | I'll be a monkey's uncle | Ill be a monkeys uncle is used as an expression of surprise. |
| 2483 | Animals | If wishes were horses, beggars would ride | This means that wishing for something or wanting it is not the same as getting or having it. |
| 2484 | Animals | If you fly with the crows, you get shot with the crows | If you wish to be associated with a particular high risk and/or high profile situation and benefit from the rewards of that association, you have to accept the consequences if things go wrong - you cannot dissociate yourself. |
| 2485 | Animals | If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas | This means that if you become involved with bad company, there will be negative consequences. |
| 2486 | Animals | In a dog's age | I you havent done something in a dogs age, you havent done it for a very long time. |
| 2487 | Animals | In donkey's years | I havent seen her in donkeys years. - This means for a very long time. |
| 2488 | Animals | In the catbird seat | (USA) If someone is in the catbird seat, they are in an advantageous or superior position. |
| 2489 | Animals | In the doghouse | If someone is in the doghouse, they are in disgrace and very unpopular at the moment. |
| 2490 | Animals | It's not the size of the dog in fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog | Usually refering to a small dog attacking a larger animal, this means that fierceness is not necessarily a matter of physical size, but rather mental/psychological attitude. |
| 2491 | Animals | Juggle frogs | If you are juggling frogs, you are trying to do something very difficult. |
| 2492 | Animals | Jump the shark | Said of a salient point in a television show or other activity at which the popularity thereof begins to wane: The Flintstones jumped the shark when a man from outer space came to visit them. The expression derives from an episode of the television sitcom Happy Days in which Fonzie, clad in leather jacket and on water skis, jumps over a shark. That episode was widely seen as the beginning of the end for the formerly popular series. |
| 2493 | Animals | Kangaroo court | When people take the law into their own hands and form courts that are not legal, these are known as kangaroo court. |
| 2494 | Animals | Keep the wolf at bay | If you keep the wolf at bay, you make enough money to avoid going hungry or falling heavily into debt. |
| 2495 | Animals | Keep the wolf from the door | If you keep the wolf from the door, you have enough money for food and the basic essentials. |
| 2496 | Animals | Kettle of fish | A pretty or fine kettle of fish is a difficult problem or situation. |
| 2497 | Animals | Kill the fatted calf | If you kill the fatted calf, you have a celebration, usually to welcome someone whos been away a long time. |
| 2498 | Animals | Kill the goose that lays the golden egg | If you kill the goose that lays the golden egg, you ruin something that is very profitable. |
| 2499 | Animals | Kill two birds with one stone | When you kill two birds with one stone, you resolve two difficulties or matters with a single action. |
| 2500 | Animals | Know a hawk from a handsaw | If someone knows a hawk from a handsaw, they are able to distinguish things and assess them. |
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47