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id | category | idiom | description |
---|---|---|---|
2501 | Animals | Lame duck | If something or someone is a lame duck, they are in trouble. |
2502 | Animals | Lap dog | A lap dog is a person who is eager to please another at the expense of his or her own needs in order to maintain a position of privilege or favor. |
2503 | Animals | Leopard can't change its spots | This idiom means that people cannot change basic aspects of their character, especially negative ones. ("A leopard doesnt change its spots" is also used.) |
2504 | Animals | Let sleeping dogs lie | If someone is told to let sleeping dogs lie, it means that they shouldnt disturb a situation as it would result in trouble or complications. |
2505 | Animals | Like a bat out of hell | This expression means extremely quickly. |
2506 | Animals | Like a beached whale | Once a whale is on a beach, it cannot get back into the easily, so if you are completely stuck somewhere and cant get away, you are stranded like a beached whale. |
2507 | Animals | Like a bear with a sore head | (UK) If someones like a bear with a sore head, they complain a lot and are unhappy about something. |
2508 | Animals | Like a bull at a gate | If you tackle a job very quickly, without any real thought about what you are doing, you are going at it like a bull at a gate. |
2509 | Animals | Like a cat on hot bricks | If someone is like a cat on hot bricks, they are very nervous or excited. |
2510 | Animals | Like a cat that got the cream | If someone looks very pleased with themselves and happy, they look like a cat that got the cream. |
2511 | Animals | Like a duck to water | If someone has a natural talent for something and enjoys it, they take to it like a duck to water. |
2512 | Animals | Like a fish needs a bicycle | If someone needs something like a Fish Needs a Bicycle, they do not need it at all, originally a feminist slogan: A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle. |
2513 | Animals | Like a fish out of water | If someone feels like a fish out of water, they are very uncomfortable in the situation they are in. |
2514 | Animals | Like a hawk | If you watch something or someone like a hawk, you observe very closely and carefully. |
2515 | Animals | Like a headless chicken | If someone rushes about like a headless chicken, they move very fast all over the place, usually without thinking. |
2516 | Animals | Like a moth to a flame | Something that is like a moth to a flame is attracted to something that is deadly or dangerous. |
2517 | Animals | Like a rat deserting a sinking ship | If people leave a company because they know that its about to have serious problems, or turn their back on a person about to be in a similar situation, they are said to be like rats deserting a sinking ship. |
2518 | Animals | Like lambs to the slaughter | If somebody does something unpleasant without any resistance, they go like lambs to the slaughter. |
2519 | Animals | Lion's share | The lions share of something is the biggest or best part. |
2520 | Animals | Live high off the hog | If you are living high off the hog, you are living lavishly. |
2521 | Animals | Loan shark | A loan shark lends money at very high rates of interest. |
2522 | Animals | Lock horns | When people lock horns, they argue or fight about something. |
2523 | Animals | Lock the stable door after the horse has bolted | If someone takes action too late, they do this; there is no reason to lock an empty stable. |
2524 | Animals | Lone wolf | A lone wolf is a person who prefers to do things on their own or without help from other people. |
2525 | Animals | Look what the cat dragged in | This idiom is used when someone arrives somewhere looking a mess or flustered and bothered. |
2526 | Animals | Lord love a duck | An exclamation used when nothing else will fit. Often fitting when one is stunned or dismayed. |
2527 | Animals | Love me, love my dog | If you love someone, you should accept everything about them and the people they like. |
2528 | Animals | Lower than a snake's belly | Someone or something that is lower than a snakes belly is of a very low moral standing. |
2529 | Animals | Lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut | (USA) If someone or something is lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut, they are of low moral standing because a snakes belly is low and if the snake is in a wagon rut, it is really low. |
2530 | Animals | Mad as a badger | If someone is as mad as a badger, they are crazy. |
2531 | Animals | Mad as a cut snake | (AU) One who is mad as a cut snake has lost all sense of reason, is crazy, out of control. |
2532 | Animals | Mad as a hornet | (USA) If someone is as mad as a hornet, they are very angry indeed. |
2533 | Animals | Mad as a March hare | Someone who is excitable and unpredictable is as mad as a March hare. |
2534 | Animals | Mad as a wet hen | If someone is as mad as a wet hen, they are extremely angry. |
2535 | Animals | Make a monkey of someone | If you make a monkey of someone, you make them look foolish. |
2536 | Animals | Memory like an elephant | An elephant never forgets is a saying, so if a person has a memory like an elephant, he or she has a very good memory indeed. |
2537 | Animals | Mess with a bull, you get the horns | If you do something stupid or dangerous, you can get hurt. |
2538 | Animals | Monkey business | If children get up to monkey business, they are behaving naughtily or mischievously. This is the same as monkeying around. |
2539 | Animals | Monkey see, monkey do | This idiom means that children will learn their behaviour by copying what they see happening around them. |
2540 | Animals | More than one way to skin a cat | When people say that there is more than one way to skin a cat, they mean that there are different ways of achieving the same thing. |
2541 | Animals | My dogs are barking | (USA) When someone says this, they mean that their feet are hurting. |
2542 | Animals | Nature of the beast | The basic characteristics of something is the nature of the beast; often used when theres an aspect of something that cannot be changed or that is unpleasant or difficult. |
2543 | Animals | Neither fish nor fowl | Something or someone that is neither fish nor fowl doesnt really fit into any one group. |
2544 | Animals | Night owl | A night owl is someone who goes to bed very late. |
2545 | Animals | No dog in this fight | If you have no dog in a fight, you are not concerned and will not be affected either way by the outcome of something. |
2546 | Animals | No spring chicken | If someone is no spring chicken, they are not young. |
2547 | Animals | Not enough room to swing a cat | If a room is very small, you can say that there isnt enough room to swing a cat in it. |
2548 | Animals | Not give a monkey's | (UK) If you couldnt give a monkeys about something, you dont care at all about it. |
2549 | Animals | Not hurt a fly | Somebody who would not hurt a fly is not aggressive. |
2550 | Animals | On the hoof | If you decide something on the hoof, you do it without planning, responding to events as they happen. |
2551 | Animals | On the wallaby track | (AU) In Australian English, if youre on the wallaby track, you are unemployed. |
2552 | Animals | On your high horse | When someone is on their high horse, they are being inflexible, arrogant and will not make any compromises. |
2553 | Animals | One swallow does not make a summer | This means that one good or positive event does not mean that everything is all right. |
2554 | Animals | One-trick pony | A one-trick pony is someone who does one thing well, but has limited skills in other areas. |
2555 | Animals | Opening a can of worms | If you open a can of worms, you do something that will cause a lot of problems and is, on balance, probably going to cause more trouble than its worth. |
2556 | Animals | Other fish to fry | If you have other fish to fry, it doesnt matter if one opportunity fails to materialise as you have plenty of others. |
2557 | Animals | Paper tiger | A paper tiger is a person, country, institution, etc, that looks powerful, but is actually weak. |
2558 | Animals | Parrot fashion | If you learn something parrot fashion, you learn it word for word. A parrot is a bird from South America that can talk. |
2559 | Animals | Pecking order | The pecking order is the order of importance or rank. |
2560 | Animals | Pet peeve | A pet peeve is something that irritates an individual greatly. |
2561 | Animals | Pig in a poke | If someone buys a pig in a poke, they buy something without checking the condition it was in, usually finding out later that it was defective. |
2562 | Animals | Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered | (USA) This idiom is used to express being satisfied with enough, that being greedy or too ambitious will be your ruin. |
2563 | Animals | Pigs might fly | If you think something will never happen or succeed, you can say that pigs might fly (or pigs can fly and pigs will fly- the idiom is used in many forms) |
2564 | Animals | Play possum | To pretend to be dead or sleeping. His younger sister jumped on him because she knew he was just playing possum. |
2565 | Animals | Proud as a peacock | Someone who is as proud as a peacock is excessively proud. |
2566 | Animals | Pull a rabbit out of your hat | If you pull a rabbit out of a hat, you do something that no one was expecting. |
2567 | Animals | Pup's chance | A pups chance is no chance. |
2568 | Animals | Puppy love | Puppy love is love between two very young people. |
2569 | Animals | Put lipstick on a pig | If people put lipstick on a pig, they make superficial or cosmetic changes, hoping that it will make the product more attractive. |
2570 | Animals | Putting the cart before the horse | When you put the cart before the horse, you are doing something the wrong way round. |
2571 | Animals | Queen bee | The queen bee is a woman who holds the most important position in a place. |
2572 | Animals | Queer fish | (UK) A strange person is a queer fish. |
2573 | Animals | Quiet as a cat | If somebody is as quiet as a cat they make as little noise as possible and try to be unnoticeable. |
2574 | Animals | Quiet as a mouse | If someones as quiet as a mouse, they make absolutely no noise. |
2575 | Animals | Raining cats and dogs | When it is raining cats and dogs, it is raining very heavily. |
2576 | Animals | Rat race | The rat race is the ruthless, competitive struggle for success in work, etc. |
2577 | Animals | Red herring | If something is a distraction from the real issues, it is a red herring. |
2578 | Animals | Root hog or die poor | (USA) Its a expression used in the Southern USA that means that you must look out for yourself as no ones going to do it for you.? (It can be shortened to root hog.? A hog is a pig.) |
2579 | Animals | Sacred cow | Something that is a sacred cow is held in such respect that it cannot be criticised or attacked. |
2580 | Animals | Salty dog | A salty dog is an experienced sailor. |
2581 | Animals | See which way the cat jumps | (AU) If you see which way the cat jumps, you postpone making a decision or acting until you have seen how things are developing. |
2582 | Animals | Separate the sheep from the goats | If you separate the sheep from the goats, you sort out the good from the bad. |
2583 | Animals | Shaggy dog story | A shaggy dog story is a joke which is a long story with a silly end. |
2584 | Animals | Shanks's pony | (UK) If you go somewhere by Shankss pony, you walk there. |
2585 | Animals | Shooting fish in a barrel | If something is like shooting fish in a barrel, it is so easy that success is guaranteed. |
2586 | Animals | Short horse soon curried | A convenient and superficial explanation that is normally unconvincing is a short horse soon curried. |
2587 | Animals | Sick as a dog | If somebodys as sick as a dog, they throw up (=vomit) violently. |
2588 | Animals | Sick as a parrot | If someones sick as a parrot about something, they are unhappy, disappointed or depressed about it. |
2589 | Animals | Sing like a canary | If someone sings like a canary, they tell everything they know about a crime or wrongdoing to the police or authorities. |
2590 | Animals | Sitting duck | A sitting duck is something or someone that is easy to criticise or target. |
2591 | Animals | Sleep well- don't let the bedbugs bite | This is a way of wishing someone a good nights sleep. |
2592 | Animals | Slowly, slowly catchy monkey | This means that eventually you will achieve your goal. |
2593 | Animals | Sly as a fox | Someone who is as sly as a fox is cunning and experienced and can get what they want, often in an underhand way. |
2594 | Animals | Small dog, tall weeds | This idiom is used to describe someone the speaker does not believe has the ability or resources to handle a task or job. |
2595 | Animals | Small fry | If someone is small fry, they are unimportant. The term is often used when the police arrest the less important criminals, but are unable to catch the leaders and masterminds. |
2596 | Animals | Smell a rat | If you smell a rat, you know instinctively that something is wrong or that someone is lying to you. |
2597 | Animals | Snake in the grass | Someone who is a snake in the grass betrays you even though you have trusted them. |
2598 | Animals | Snake oil | Advice or medicine which is of no use. |
2599 | Animals | Snake oil salesperson | A person who promotes something that doesnt work, is selling snake oil. |
2600 | Animals | Snipe hunt | A snipe hunt is a situation in which someone is tricked into chasing after something that does not exist. The origin comes from a hazing ritual in which someone would be led into the field to catch snipe (an imaginary animal) in a sack while the other hunters pushed the snipe in that direction. The other hunters would in reality leave the hunter there and go on their way. |
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