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| id | category | idiom | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3101 | Buildings & construction | Bounce off the walls | If someones bouncing off the walls, they are very excited about something. |
| 3102 | Buildings & construction | Bridge the gap | If you bridge the gap, you make a connection where there is a great difference. |
| 3103 | Buildings & construction | Bring the house down | Something that brings the house down is acclaimed and praised vigorously. |
| 3104 | Buildings & construction | Burn your bridges | If you burn your bridges, you do something that makes it impossible to go back from the position you have taken. |
| 3105 | Buildings & construction | Buy the farm | When somebody has bought the farm, they have died. |
| 3106 | Buildings & construction | By the back door | If something is started or introduced by the back door, then it is not done openly or by following the proper procedures. |
| 3107 | Buildings & construction | Castles in the air | Plans that are impractical and will never work out are castles in the air. |
| 3108 | Buildings & construction | Charity begins at home | This idiom means that family members are more important than anyone else, and should be the focus of a persons efforts. |
| 3109 | Buildings & construction | Circle the drain | If someone is circling the drain, they are spiraling downward to a usually inevitable death. |
| 3110 | Buildings & construction | Circling the drain | If someone is circling the drain, they are very near death and have little time to live. The phrase can also describe a project or plan or campaign that that is on the brink of failure. |
| 3111 | Buildings & construction | Cross that bridge when you come to it | If you will cross that bridge when you come to it, you will deal with a problem when it arises, but not until that point |
| 3112 | Buildings & construction | Don't throw bricks when you live in a glass house | Dont call others out on actions that you, yourself do. Dont be a hypocrite. |
| 3113 | Buildings & construction | Drive home | The idiomatic expression drive home means reinforce as in The company offered unlimited technical support as a way to drive home the message that customer satisfaction was its highest priority. |
| 3114 | Buildings & construction | Drive someone up the wall | If something or someone drives you up the wall, they do something that irritates you greatly. |
| 3115 | Buildings & construction | Feel at home | If you feel relaxed and comfortable somewhere or with someone, you feel at home. |
| 3116 | Buildings & construction | Fence sitter | Someone that try to support both side of an argument without committing to either is a fence sitter. |
| 3117 | Buildings & construction | Flutter the dovecotes | (UK) Something that flutters the dovecots causes alarm or excitement. |
| 3118 | Buildings & construction | Get in on the ground floor | If you get in on the ground floor, you enter a project or venture at the start before people know how successful it might be. |
| 3119 | Buildings & construction | Get on like a house on fire | If people get on like a house on fire, they have a very close and good relationship. |
| 3120 | Buildings & construction | Go to the wall | If a company goes to the wall, it goes bust or fails. |
| 3121 | Buildings & construction | Good fences make good neighbours | This means that it is better for people to mind their own business and to respect the privacy of others.? (Good fences make good neighbors is the American English spelling.) |
| 3122 | Buildings & construction | Good walls make good neighbours | Your relationship with your neighbours depends, among other things, on respecting one anothers privacy. |
| 3123 | Buildings & construction | Grist for the mill | Something that you can use to your advantage is grist for the mill. (Grist to the mill is also used.) |
| 3124 | Buildings & construction | Have the floor | If someone has the floor, it is their turn to speak at a meeting. |
| 3125 | Buildings & construction | Hit the ceiling | If someone hits the ceiling, they lose their temper and become very angry. |
| 3126 | Buildings & construction | Hit the roof | If you lose your temper and get very angry, you hit the roof. |
| 3127 | Buildings & construction | Hold the fort | If you hold the fort, you look after something or assume someones responsibilities while they are away. |
| 3128 | Buildings & construction | Home and hearth | Home and hearth is an idiom evoking warmth and security. |
| 3129 | Buildings & construction | Home sweet home | This is said when one is pleased to be back at ones own home. |
| 3130 | Buildings & construction | House of cards | Something that is poorly thought out and can easily collapse or fail is a house of cards. |
| 3131 | Buildings & construction | If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen | Originally a Harry S. Truman quote, this means that if you cant take the pressure, then you should remove yourself from the situation. |
| 3132 | Buildings & construction | Ivory tower | People who live in ivory towers are detached from the world around them. |
| 3133 | Buildings & construction | Light at the end of the tunnel | If you can see light at the end of the tunnel, then you can see some signs of hope in the future, though things are difficult at the moment. |
| 3134 | Buildings & construction | Mend fences | When people mend fences, they try to improve or restore relations that have been damaged by disputes or arguments. |
| 3135 | Buildings & construction | My way or the highway | This idiom is used to say that if people dont do what you say, they will have to leave or quit the project, etc. |
| 3136 | Buildings & construction | Nothing to write home about | Something that is not special or good is nothing to write home about. |
| 3137 | Buildings & construction | Off the wall | Something that is off the wall is unconventional. |
| 3138 | Buildings & construction | On the factory floor | On the factory floor means the place where things are actually produced. |
| 3139 | Buildings & construction | On the house | If you get something for free that would normally have to be bought, especially in a bar or restaurant, it is on the house. |
| 3140 | Buildings & construction | Paper over the cracks | If you paper over the cracks, you try to make something look or work better but only deal with superficial issues, not the real underlying problems. |
| 3141 | Buildings & construction | People who live in glass houses should not throw stones | People should not criticize other people for faults that they have themselves. |
| 3142 | Buildings & construction | Proclaim it from the rooftops | If something is proclaimed from the rooftops, it is made as widely known and as public as possible. |
| 3143 | Buildings & construction | Round the houses | If you go round the houses, you do something in an inefficient way when there is a quicker, more convenient way. |
| 3144 | Buildings & construction | Rule the roost | If someone rules the roost they are the boss. Example:Theres no doubt who rules the roost in this house. |
| 3145 | Buildings & construction | Safe as houses | Something that is as safe as houses is very secure or certain. |
| 3146 | Buildings & construction | Shop floor | Shop floor refers to the part of an organisation where the work is actually performed rather than just managed. |
| 3147 | Buildings & construction | Sit on the fence | If someone sits on the fence, they try not to support either side in a dispute. |
| 3148 | Buildings & construction | Something nasty in the woodshed | Something nasty in the woodshed means that someone as a dark secret or an unpleasant experience in their past. |
| 3149 | Buildings & construction | Straddle the fence | To straddle the fence is to be indecisive, often to the point where it becomes painful not to make a decision. |
| 3150 | Buildings & construction | Take someone to the woodshed | If someone is taken to the woodshed, they are punished for something they have done. |
| 3151 | Buildings & construction | Take the floor | Start talking or giving a speech to a group |
| 3152 | Buildings & construction | Talking to a brick wall | If you talk to someone and they do not listen to you, it is like talking to a brick wall. |
| 3153 | Buildings & construction | Through the ceiling | If prices go through the ceiling, they rise very quickly. |
| 3154 | Buildings & construction | Through the floor | If prices go, or fall, through the floor, they fall very quickly. |
| 3155 | Buildings & construction | To be as thick as two bricks | Someone who is as thick as two bricks is really stupid. |
| 3156 | Buildings & construction | Up the wall | If someone goes up the wall, they get very angry. |
| 3157 | Buildings & construction | Water over the dam | (USA) If something has happened and cannot be changed, it is water over the dam. |
| 3158 | Buildings & construction | Water under the bridge | If something belongs to the past and isnt important or troubling any more, it is water under the bridge. |
| 3159 | Buildings & construction | Were you born in a barn? | If someone asks you this, it means that you forgot to close the door when you came in. |
| 3160 | Buildings & construction | Wipe the floor with | (UK) If you wipe the floor with someone, you destroy the arguments or defeat them easily. |
| 3161 | Buildings & construction | Writing on the wall | If the writings on the wall for something, it is doomed to fail. |
| 3162 | Character & appearance | As cold as ice | This idiom can be used to describe a person who does not show any emotion. |
| 3163 | Character & appearance | As mad as a hatter | This simile means that someone is crazy or behaves very strangely. In the past many people who made hats went insane because they had a lot of contact with mercury. |
| 3164 | Character & appearance | Average Joe | An average Joe is an ordinary person without anything exceptional about them. |
| 3165 | Character & appearance | Bald as a coot | A person who is completely bald is as bald as a coot. |
| 3166 | Character & appearance | Barefaced liar | A barefaced liar is one who displays no shame about lying even if they are exposed. |
| 3167 | Character & appearance | Bark is worse than their bite | Someone whos bark is worse than their bite may well get angry and shout, but doesnt take action. |
| 3168 | Character & appearance | Barrel of laughs | If someones a barrel of laughs, they are always joking and you find them funny. |
| 3169 | Character & appearance | Bold as brass | Someone who is as bold as brass is very confident and not worried about how other people will respond or about being caught. |
| 3170 | Character & appearance | Class act | Someone whos a class act is exceptional in what they do. |
| 3171 | Character & appearance | Cry-baby | A cry-baby is a person who gets emotional and cries too easily. |
| 3172 | Character & appearance | Daft as a brush | (UK) Someone who is daft as a brush is rather stupid. |
| 3173 | Character & appearance | Dumb as a rock | If you are dumb as a rock, you have no common sense and are stupid. |
| 3174 | Character & appearance | Fit of pique | If someone reacts badly because their pride is hurt, this is a fit of pique. |
| 3175 | Character & appearance | Hail-fellow-well-met | Someone whose behavior is hearty, friendly and congenial. |
| 3176 | Character & appearance | Hard as nails | A person who is as hard as nails is either physically tough or has little or no respect for other peoples feelings. |
| 3177 | Character & appearance | High-handed | If someone is high-handed, they behave arrogantly and pompously. |
| 3178 | Character & appearance | I may be daft, but I'm not stupid | I might do or say silly things occasionally, but in this instance I know what I am doing (Usually used when someone questions your application of common-sense). |
| 3179 | Character & appearance | In rude health | (UK) If someones in rude health, they are very healthy and look it. |
| 3180 | Character & appearance | Johnny-come-lately | A Johnny-come-lately is someone who has recently joined something or arrived somewhere, especially when they want to make changes that are not welcome. |
| 3181 | Character & appearance | Just off the boat | If someone is just off the boat, they are naive and inexperienced. |
| 3182 | Character & appearance | Keep up with the Joneses | People who try to keep up with the Joneses are competitive about material possessions and always try to have the latest and best things. |
| 3183 | Character & appearance | Laughing stock | If someone becomes a laughing stock they do something so stupid or wrong that no one can take them seriously and people scorn and laugh at them. |
| 3184 | Character & appearance | Moral fibre | Moral fibre is the inner strength to do what you believe to be right in difficult situations Example: He lacked the moral fibre to be leader (In American English the correct spelling is fiber.) |
| 3185 | Character & appearance | Off your chump | (UK) If someone is off their chump, they are crazy or irrational. |
| 3186 | Character & appearance | Out of your mind | If someone is out of the mind, they are so emotional about something that they are no longer rational. |
| 3187 | Character & appearance | Plain Jane | A plain Jane is a woman who isnt particularly attractive. |
| 3188 | Character & appearance | Pleased as punch | When someone is pleased as punch, they are very satisfied about something |
| 3189 | Character & appearance | Rest on your laurels | If someone rests on their laurels, they rely on their past achievements, rather than trying to achieve things now. |
| 3190 | Character & appearance | Sharp as a tack | (USA) If someone is as sharp as a tack, they are very clever indeed. |
| 3191 | Character & appearance | There's no fool like an old fool | When an older person behaves foolishly, it seems worse than when a younger person does the same, especially in relationships, as an older person should |
| 3192 | Character & appearance | To have the courage of your convictions | If you have the courage of your convictions, you are brave enough to do what you feel is right, despite any pressure for you to do something different. |
| 3193 | Character & appearance | Two-faced | Someone who is two-faced will say one thing to your face and another when youre not there. |
| 3194 | Character & appearance | Yes-man | Someone who always agrees with people in authority is a yes-man. |
| 3195 | Children and babies | Babe in arms | A babe in arms is a very young child, or a person who is very young to be holding a position. |
| 3196 | Children and babies | Babe in the woods | A babe in the woods is a naive, defenceless, young person. |
| 3197 | Children and babies | Baby boomer | (USA) A baby boomer is someone born in the years after the end of the Second World War, a period when the population was growing very fast. |
| 3198 | Children and babies | Blue-eyed boy | Someones blue-eyed boy is their favourite person. |
| 3199 | Children and babies | Child's play | If something is childs play, it is very easy and simple. |
| 3200 | Children and babies | Get out of your pram | (UK) If someone gets out of their pram, they respond aggressively to an argument or problem that doesnt involve them. |
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