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id | category | idiom | description |
---|---|---|---|
3301 | Clothes | Trail your coat | If you trail your coat, you act in a provocative way. |
3302 | Clothes | Under someone's heel | If you are under someones heel, they have complete control over you. |
3303 | Clothes | Under your belt | If you have something under your belt, you have already achieved or experienced it and it will probably be of benefit to you in the future. |
3304 | Clothes | Velvet glove | This idiom is used to describe a person who appears gentle, but is determined and inflexible underneath. (Iron fist in a velvet glove is the full form.) |
3305 | Clothes | Walk a mile in my shoes | This idiom means that you should try to understand someone before criticising them. |
3306 | Clothes | Wear many hats | If someone wears many hats, they have different roles or tasks to perform. |
3307 | Clothes | Wear sackcloth and ashes | If someone displays their grief or contrition publicly, they wear sackcloth and ashes. |
3308 | Clothes | Wear the trousers | The person who |
3309 | Clothes | Well-heeled | Someone who is well-heeled is rich. |
3310 | Clothes | Who wears the pants? | (USA) The person who wears the pants in a relationship is the dominant person who controls things. |
3311 | Clothes | Who wears the trousers? | (UK) The person who wears the trousers in a relationship is the dominant person who controls things. |
3312 | Clothes | Work your socks off | If you work your socks off, you work very hard. |
3313 | Clothes | Zip it | This is used to tell someone to be quiet. |
3314 | Colours | All cats are grey in the dark | Things are indistinguishable in the dark so appearances dont matter.(All cats are grey at night is also used.) |
3315 | Colours | Be true blue | If a person/object/situation is considered to be true blue, it is considered genuine. |
3316 | Colours | Beyond the black stump | (AU) An Australian idiom idicating that even if you go as far as you can, the black stump |
3317 | Colours | Black and blue | This means bruised, either physically or metaphorically. |
3318 | Colours | Black and white | When it is very clear who or what is right and wrong, then the situation is black and white. |
3319 | Colours | Black as Newgate's knocker | (UK) If things are as black as Newgates knocker, they are very bad. Newgate was an infamous prison in England, so its door knocker meant trouble. |
3320 | Colours | Black hole | If there is a black hole in financial accounts, money has disappeared. |
3321 | Colours | Black sheep | Someone who is the black sheep doesnt fit into a group or family because their behaviour or character is not good enough. |
3322 | Colours | Blackball | If you vote against allowing someone to be a member of an organisation or group, you are blackballing him or her. |
3323 | Colours | Born to the purple | Someone who is born to the purple is born in a royal or aristocratic family. ("Born in the purple" is also used.) |
3324 | Colours | Boys in blue | The boys in blue are the police. |
3325 | Colours | Brown as a berry | Someone who is very sun tanned is brown as a berry. |
3326 | Colours | Browned off | To be tired of or fed up with |
3327 | Colours | Catch someone red-handed | If someone is caught red-handed, they are found doing something wrong or illegal. |
3328 | Colours | Color bar | Rules that restrict access on the? basis of race or ethnicity are a color bar. |
3329 | Colours | Feeling blue | If you feel blue, you are feeling unwell, mainly associated with depression or unhappiness. |
3330 | Colours | Go blue | If you go blue, you are very cold indeed. (Turn blue is an alternative form.) |
3331 | Colours | Great white hope | Someone who is expected to be a great success is a great white hope. |
3332 | Colours | Green around the gills | If someone looks green around the gills, they look ill. |
3333 | Colours | Green fingers | (UK) Someone with green fingers has a talent for gardening. |
3334 | Colours | Green light | If you are given the green light, you are given approval to do something. |
3335 | Colours | Green thumb | (USA) Someone with a talent for gardening has a green thumb. |
3336 | Colours | Green with envy | If you are green with envy, you are very jealous. |
3337 | Colours | Green-eyed monster | The green-eyed monster is an allegorical phrase for somebodys strong jealousy |
3338 | Colours | Greenhorn | A greenhorn or someone who is described simply as green lacks the relevant experience and knowledge for their job or task |
3339 | Colours | Grey area | A grey/gray area is one where there is no clear right or wrong. |
3340 | Colours | Grey Cardinal | Someone who is a Grey Cardinal exerts power behind the scenes, without drawing attention to himself or herself. |
3341 | Colours | Grey matter | Grey/gray matter is the human brain. |
3342 | Colours | Grey pound | (UK) In the UK, the grey pound is an idiom for the economic power of elderly people. |
3343 | Colours | Hot as blue blazes | If somethings as hot as blue blazes, its extremely hot. |
3344 | Colours | In the black | If your bank account is in credit, it is in the black. |
3345 | Colours | In the pink | If you are in very good health, you are in the pink. |
3346 | Colours | In the red | If your bank account is overdrawn, it is in the red. |
3347 | Colours | Jet-black | To emphasise just how black something is, such as someones hair, we can call it jet-black. |
3348 | 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. |
3349 | Colours | Off colour | If someone looks off colour/color, they look ill. |
3350 | Colours | Once in a blue moon | If something happens once in a blue moon, it happens very rarely indeed. |
3351 | Colours | Out of the blue | If something happens out of the blue, it happens suddenly and unexpectedly. |
3352 | Colours | Paint the town red | If you go out for a night out with lots of fun and drinking, you paint the town red. |
3353 | Colours | Pink slip | If someone receives a pink slip, they receive a letter telling them they have lost their job. |
3354 | 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. |
3355 | Colours | Purple patch | A purple patch is a period of time when someone or something is successful and doing well. |
3356 | Colours | Put more green into something | (USA) To put more green into something is to spend more or to increase investment in it. |
3357 | Colours | Ragged blue line | (USA) This term was used to signify the Union forces (who wore blue uniforms) in the American Civil war . |
3358 | Colours | Red letter day | A red letter day is a one of good luck, when something special happens to you. |
3359 | Colours | Red light district | The red light district is the area of a town or city where there is prostitution, sex shops, etc. |
3360 | Colours | Red mist | If someone sees red or the red mist, they lose their temper and self-control completely. |
3361 | 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. |
3362 | Colours | Red tape | This is a negative term for the official paperwork and bureaucracy that we have to deal with. |
3363 | Colours | Reds under the bed | An ironic allusion to the obsession some people have that there are reds (communists) everywhere plotting violent revolution. |
3364 | Colours | Roll out the red carpet | If you roll out the red carpet, you treat someone in a special way, especially when welcoming them. |
3365 | 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. |
3366 | Colours | Rose-tinted glasses | If people see things through rose-tinted glasses, they see them in a more positive light than they really are. |
3367 | 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. |
3368 | Colours | Scarlet woman | This idiom is used as a pejorative term for a sexually promiscuous woman, especially an adulteress. |
3369 | Colours | Scream blue murder | If someone shouts very loudly in anger, or fear, they scream blue murder. |
3370 | Colours | See red | If someone sees red, they become very angry about something. |
3371 | Colours | Show your true colors | To show your true colors is to reveal yourself as you really are. |
3372 | 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.) |
3373 | 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.) |
3374 | Colours | Tickled pink | If you are very pleased about something, you are tickled pink. |
3375 | 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. |
3376 | Colours | True blue | A person who is true blue is loyal and dependable, someone who can be relied on in all circumstances. |
3377 | Colours | True colours | If someone shows their true colours, they show themselves as they really are. (True colors is the American spelling.) |
3378 | 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. |
3379 | Colours | Walk the green mile | Someone or something that is walking the green mile is heading towards the inevitable. |
3380 | Colours | White as a sheet | A bad shock can make somebody go as white as a sheet. |
3381 | Colours | White feather | If someone shows a white feather, they are cowards. |
3382 | Colours | White lie | If you tell a white lie, you lie in order not to hurt someones feelings. |
3383 | Colours | With flying colours (colors) | If you pass something with flying colours (colors), you pass easily, with a very high mark or grade. |
3384 | Colours | Yellow press | The yellow press is a term for the popular and sensationalist newspapers. |
3385 | Colours | Yellow streak | If someone has a yellow streak, they are cowardly about something. |
3386 | Colours | Yellow-bellied | A yellow-bellied person is a coward. |
3387 | Death | At death's door | If someone looks as if they are at deaths door, they look seriously unwell and might actually be dying. |
3388 | 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. |
3389 | Death | Breathe your last | When you breathe your last, you die. |
3390 | Death | Cheat death | If someone cheats death, they narrowly avoid a major problem or accident. |
3391 | Death | Dancing on someone's grave | If you will dance on someones grave, you will outlive or outlast them and will celebrate their demise. |
3392 | Death | Dead and buried | If something is dead and buried, it has all long been settled and is not going to be reconsidered. |
3393 | Death | Dead as a doornail | This is used to indicate that something is lifeless. |
3394 | Death | Dead even | If people competing are dead even, they are at exactly the same stage or moving at exactly the same speed. |
3395 | Death | Dead in the water | If something is dead in the water, it isnt going anywhere or making any progress. |
3396 | Death | Dead level best | If you try your dead level best,? you try as hard as you possibly could to do something. |
3397 | 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. |
3398 | Death | Dead meat | This is used as a way of threatening someone: Youll be dead meat if you dont go along. |
3399 | Death | Dead right | This means that something or someone is absolutely correct, without doubt. |
3400 | 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. |
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