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| id | category | idiom | description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4101 | Plants & Flowers | Can't see the forest for its trees | If someone cant see the forest for its trees, they are too focused on specific details to see the picture as a whole. |
| 4102 | Plants & Flowers | Clutch at straws | If someone is in serious trouble and tries anything to help them, even though their chances of success are probably nil, they are clutching at straws. |
| 4103 | Plants & Flowers | Come up roses | If things come up roses, they produce a positive result, especially when things seemed to be going badly at first. |
| 4104 | Plants & Flowers | Come up smelling of roses | (UK) If someone comes up smelling of roses, they emerge from a situation with their reputation undamaged. |
| 4105 | Plants & Flowers | Cut down the tall poppies | (AU) If people cut down the tall poppies, they criticise people who stand out from the crowd. |
| 4106 | Plants & Flowers | Demon weed | Tobacco is the demon weed. |
| 4107 | Plants & Flowers | Draw the shortest straw | If someone draws the shortest straw, they lose or are chosen to do something unpleasant. |
| 4108 | Plants & Flowers | Easy as falling off a log | Something very easy or simple to do is as easy as falling off a log. |
| 4109 | Plants & Flowers | Flowery speech | Flowery speech is full of lovely words, but may well lack substance. |
| 4110 | Plants & Flowers | Forest for the trees | (USA) If someone cant see the forest for the trees, they get so caught up in small details that they fail to understand the bigger picture. |
| 4111 | Plants & Flowers | Gild the lily | If you gild the lily, you decorate something that is already ornate. |
| 4112 | Plants & Flowers | Go to seed | If someone has gone to seed, they have declined in quality or appearance. |
| 4113 | Plants & Flowers | Grasp the nettle | (UK) If you grasp the nettle, you deal bravely with a problem. |
| 4114 | Plants & Flowers | Grass roots | This idioms is often used in politics, where it refers to the ordinary people or voters. It can be used to mean people at the bottom of a hierarchy. |
| 4115 | Plants & Flowers | Hit the hay | When you hit the hay, you go to bed. |
| 4116 | Plants & Flowers | In the tall cotton | A phrase that expresses good times or times of plenty and wealth as tall cotton means a good crop. |
| 4117 | Plants & Flowers | Jungle out there | If someone says that it is a jungle out there, they mean that the situation is dangerous and there are no rules. |
| 4118 | Plants & Flowers | Just as the twig is bent, the tree?s inclined | Things, especially education, that affect and influence us in our childhood shape the kind of adult we turn out to be. |
| 4119 | Plants & Flowers | Kick something into the long grass | If an issue or problem is kicked into the long grass, it is pushed aside and hidden in the hope that it will be forgotten or ignored. |
| 4120 | Plants & Flowers | Knock on wood | This idiom is used to wish for good luck. (Touch wood is also used.) |
| 4121 | Plants & Flowers | Last straw | The last straw is the final problem that makes someone lose their temper or the problem that finally brought about the collapse of something. It comes from an Arabic story, where a camel was loaded with straw until a single straw placed on the rest of the load broke its back. |
| 4122 | Plants & Flowers | Lead someone up the garden path | If someone leads you up the garden path, they deceive you, or give you false information that causes you to waste your time. Lead someone down the garden path is also used. |
| 4123 | Plants & Flowers | Let the grass grow round your feet | If you let the grass grow round your feet, you delay doing things instead of taking action. |
| 4124 | Plants & Flowers | Little strokes fell great oaks | Meaning: even though something may seem impossible, if you break it up into small parts and take one step at a time, you will succeed. |
| 4125 | Plants & Flowers | Make hay | If you make hay, or may hay while the sun shines, you take advantage of an opportunity as soon as it arises and do not waste time. |
| 4126 | Plants & Flowers | Mighty oaks from little acorns grow | Big or great things start very small. |
| 4127 | Plants & Flowers | Muck or nettles | Muck or nettles means all or nothing. |
| 4128 | Plants & Flowers | Needle in a haystack | If trying to find something is like looking for a needle in a haystack, it means that it is very difficult, if not impossible to find among everything around it. |
| 4129 | Plants & Flowers | Never a rose without the prick | This means that good things always have something bad as well; like the thorns on the stem of a rose. |
| 4130 | Plants & Flowers | Nip it in the bud | If you nip something in the bud, you deal with a problem when it is still small, before it can grow into something serious. |
| 4131 | Plants & Flowers | No bed of roses | If something isnt a bed of roses, it is difficult. |
| 4132 | Plants & Flowers | Old chestnut | An old chestnut is something that has been repeated so many times that it has lost its impact. |
| 4133 | Plants & Flowers | Olive branch | If you hold out or offer an olive branch, you make a gesture to indicate that you want peace. |
| 4134 | Plants & Flowers | Oops a daisy | An expression used to indicate surprise. |
| 4135 | Plants & Flowers | Out of the woods | If you are out of the woods, you have emerged safely from a dangerous situation, though the idiom is often used in the negative. |
| 4136 | Plants & Flowers | Primrose path | The primrose path is an easy and pleasurable lifestyle, but one that ends in unpleasantness and problems. |
| 4137 | Plants & Flowers | Pushing up the daisies | If someone is said to be pushing up the daisies, they are dead. |
| 4138 | Plants & Flowers | Put someone out to pasture | If someone is put out to pasture, they are forced to resign or give up some responsibilities. |
| 4139 | Plants & Flowers | Rough end of the stick | To get the rough end of the stick is to be treated unfairly or to come off worse than the other party in a transaction, situation or relationship. |
| 4140 | Plants & Flowers | Run around the bush | (USA) If you run around the bush, it means that youre taking a long time to get to the point. |
| 4141 | Plants & Flowers | Seed money | Seed money is money that is used to start a small business. |
| 4142 | Plants & Flowers | Short end of the stick | If someone gets the short end of the stick, they are unfairly treated or dont get what they deserve. |
| 4143 | Plants & Flowers | Shrinking violet | A shrinking violet is a shy person who doesnt express their views and opinions. |
| 4144 | Plants & Flowers | Sow the seeds | When people sow the seeds, they start something that will have a much greater impact in the future. |
| 4145 | Plants & Flowers | Take a straw poll | If you take a straw poll, you sound a number of people out to see their opinions on an issue or topic. |
| 4146 | Plants & Flowers | The grass is always greener | This idiom means that what other people have or do looks preferable to our life. The complete phrase is The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. |
| 4147 | Plants & Flowers | The short straw | If you take the short straw, you lose a selection process, which means that you have to do something unpleasant. |
| 4148 | Plants & Flowers | Thorn in your side | A thorn in your side is someone or something that causes trouble or makes life difficult for you. |
| 4149 | Plants & Flowers | Touch wood | This idiom is used to wish for good luck. (Knock on wood is also used.) |
| 4150 | Plants & Flowers | Turf war | If people or organisations are fighting for control of something, it is a turf war. |
| 4151 | Plants & Flowers | Turn a new leaf | If someone turns a new leaf, they change their behaviour and stop doing wrong or bad things. |
| 4152 | Plants & Flowers | Turn up one's toes to the daisies | If someone has turned up their toes to the daisies, it means that the person died. |
| 4153 | Plants & Flowers | Ugly as a stick | (USA) If someone is as ugly as a stick, they are very ugly indeed. |
| 4154 | Plants & Flowers | Up a gum tree | (AU) If youre up a gum tree, youre in trouble or a big mess. |
| 4155 | Plants & Flowers | Wallflower | (UK) A woman politician given an unimportant government position so that the government can pretend it takes women seriously is a wallflower. |
| 4156 | Plants & Flowers | Watch grass grow | If something is like watching grass grow, it is really boring. |
| 4157 | Plants & Flowers | Wither on the vine | If something withers on the vine, it fails to get the intended result, doesnt come to fruition. |
| 4158 | Plants & Flowers | Wood for the trees | (UK) If someone cant see the wood for the trees, they get so caught up in small details that they fail to understand the bigger picture. |
| 4159 | Police & Crime | A steal | If something is a steal, it costs much less than it is really worth. |
| 4160 | Police & Crime | Bandit territory | An area or an industry, profession, etc, where rules and laws are ignored or flouted is bandit territory. |
| 4161 | Police & Crime | Beat the rap | If you beat the rap, you escape conviction and punishment for a crime or something you have done wrong. |
| 4162 | Police & Crime | Behind bars | When someone is behind bars, they are in prison. |
| 4163 | Police & Crime | Cat burglar | A cat burglar is a skillful thief who breaks into places without disturbing people or setting off alarms. |
| 4164 | Police & Crime | Do a runner | (UK) If people leave a restaurant without paying, they do a runner. |
| 4165 | Police & Crime | Get away with murder | If you get away with murder, you do something bad and dont get caught or punished.(Get away with blue murder is also used.) |
| 4166 | Police & Crime | Highway robbery | Something that is ridiculously expensive, especially when you have no choice but to pay, is a highway robbery. |
| 4167 | Police & Crime | Honor among thieves | If someone says there is honor among thieves, this means that even corrupt or bad people sometimes have a sense of honor or integrity, or justice, even if it is skewed.? (Honour among thieves is the British English version.) |
| 4168 | Police & Crime | In the clink | (UK) If someone is in the clink, they are in prison. |
| 4169 | Police & Crime | In the dock | If someone is in the dock, they are on trial in court. |
| 4170 | Police & Crime | Make out like a bandit | (USA) If someone is extremely successful in a venture, they make out like a bandit. |
| 4171 | Police & Crime | New sheriff in town | This is used when a new authority figure takes charge. |
| 4172 | Police & Crime | On the case | If someone is on the case, they are dealing with a problem. |
| 4173 | Police & Crime | On the lam | If someone is on the lam, they are hiding from the police or authorities, especially to avoid arrest or prison. |
| 4174 | Police & Crime | On the run | If someone is on the run, they are avoiding arrest and hiding from the police. |
| 4175 | Police & Crime | Poacher turned gamekeeper | Someone who gets a legitimate job which is the opposite of their previous one. E.G a computer hacker who then helps to catch other hackers or an ex-bank robber who then advises banks on security. |
| 4176 | Police & Crime | Serve time | When someone is serving time, they are in prison. |
| 4177 | Police & Crime | Set a thief to catch a thief | The best person to catch a criminal is another criminal |
| 4178 | Police & Crime | Steal a march | This expression indicates the stealthiness of a person over another to gain advantage of the situation. For instance, if two persons are offered some jobs which are vacant, they resolve to go together next day at an agreed time, but one of them, without telling the other, goes earlier than the other and secures the better of the two jobs, he is said to steal a march on the other person. |
| 4179 | Police & Crime | Stool pigeon | (USA) A stool pigeon is a police informer. |
| 4180 | Police & Crime | Take no prisoners | If people take no prisoners, they do things in a very aggressive way, without considering any harm they might do to achieve their objectives. |
| 4181 | Police & Crime | Thick as thieves | If people are thick as thieves, they are very close friends who have no secrets from each other. |
| 4182 | Politics | Body politic | A group of people organised under a single government or authority (national or regional) is a body politic. |
| 4183 | Politics | Carpetbagger | A carpetbagger is an opportunist without any scruples or ethics, or a politican who wants to represent a place they have no connection with. |
| 4184 | Politics | Casting vote | The casting vote is a vote given to a chairman or president that is used when there is a deadlock. |
| 4185 | Politics | Dog-whistle politics | (AU) When political parties have policies that will appeal to racists while not being overtly racist, they are indulging in dog-whistle politics. |
| 4186 | Politics | Economical with the truth | (UK) If someone, especially a politician, is economical with the truth, they leave out information in order to create a false picture of a situation, without actually lying. |
| 4187 | Politics | Fifth columnist | (UK) A fifth columnist is a member of a subversive organisation who tries to help an enemy invade. |
| 4188 | Politics | Fourth estate | This is an idiomatic way of describing the media, especially the newspapers. |
| 4189 | Politics | Get on your soapbox | If someone on their soapbox, they hold forth (talk a lot) about a subject they feel strongly about. |
| 4190 | Politics | Gunboat diplomacy | If a nation conducts its diplomatic relations by threatening military action to get what it wants, it is using gunboat diplomacy. |
| 4191 | Politics | Megaphone diplomacy | If negotiations between countries or parties are held through press releases and announcements, this is megaphone diplomacy, aiming to force the other party into adopting a desired position. |
| 4192 | Politics | On the stump | When politicians are campaigning for support and votes, they are on the stump. |
| 4193 | Politics | Politically correct | Things or people that are politically correct use language that will not cause offence. |
| 4194 | Politics | Pork barrel | Pork barrel politics involves investing money in an area to get political support rather than using the money for the common good. |
| 4195 | Politics | Toe the line | If someone toes the line, they follow and respect the rules and regulations. |
| 4196 | Politics | Wedge politics | (USA) In wedge politics, one party uses an issue that they hope will divide members of a different party to create conflict and weaken it. |
| 4197 | Politics | You can't fight City Hall | This phrase is used when one is so cynical that one doesnt think one can change their Representatives. The phrase must have started with frustration towards a local body of government. |
| 4198 | Profession or work | Agony aunt | An agony aunt is a newspaper columnist who gives advice to people having problems, especially personal ones. |
| 4199 | Profession or work | All in a day's work | If something is all in a days work, it is nothing special. |
| 4200 | Profession or work | Bad workers always blame their tools | "A bad worker always blames their tools" - If somebody does a job badly or loses in a game and claims that they were let down by their equipment, you can use this to imply that this was not the case. |
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