Idioms Flashcards
(120 cards)
1
Q
Lily-levered
A
Weak and cowardly
2
Q
To kick the bucket
A
To die
3
Q
Miss the boat
A
To miss an opportunity
4
Q
To bell the cat
A
To face risk
5
Q
A strom in a teacup
A
A situation in which people are very angry or upset about something that is not important
6
Q
Sharp practice
A
Crafty or deceitful dealing specially in business
7
Q
Rule to roost
A
To dominate
8
Q
Keep someone’s at arm’s length
A
To not allow someone to become too friendly
9
Q
To tie someone (up) in the knots
A
To confuse someone and make them unable to explain something clearly
10
Q
Scrap the barrel
A
To do something that you do not want to do because you have no other option
11
Q
A dime of a dozen
A
Very common and no particular value
12
Q
Beat about the bush
A
To avoid getting to the point of issue
13
Q
To prime the pump
A
Stimulate the growth of success of something by doing something, usually sunnlying it with money
14
Q
Back against the wall
A
Be in difficult situation from where escape is difficult
15
Q
To walk on the air
A
To feel extremely excited or happy
16
Q
Bad iron
A
Bad luck
17
Q
By the skin of your teeth
A
Just barley/ by a very narrow margin ; only just
18
Q
Through the thick and thin
A
Under all circumstances, no matter how difficult
19
Q
Blessing in disguise
A
Something that seems bad or unlucky at first but causes. Something good to happen later
20
Q
To be in two minds
A
To be uncertain
21
Q
Fall foul of
A
To get into trouble because of failing to do what is required by (the law , rule , etc)
22
Q
Gift of the gab
A
The ability to speak with eloquence and fluency
23
Q
Get into scrap
A
Involved in a problem
24
Q
A blot from blue
A
A complete surprise/an unexpected disaster
25
Blow something out of proportion
To treat a particular event or problem far too seriously
26
To go to the dogs
To become worse
27
Up the creek
In trouble, in a serious oredicament
28
Back to the drawing board
To plan it all over again
29
Jumped the gun
To do something too soon , especially without thinking carefully about it
30
Be on the ball
To be quick to understand and react to things / be alert to new ideas , methods and trends
31
Stir up a hornest's nest
To make trouble cause a commotion
32
Face the music
Get reprimanded I be punished
33
To rain cats and dogs
raining very heavily
34
To take a bull by the horns
To deal with the difficult situation in a very Direct for confident way
35
Call it a day
Stop working
36
Once in a blue moon
Very rare
37
Under the cloud
Dude with suspicion, distress or disannroval
38
A perfect strom
The worst possible situation
39
Bad blood
Angry feeling/ enimty
40
As dead as doornail
Completely absolute / totaly or assuredly dead
41
Catch a tarter
To encounter with someone that proves more powerful or troublesome
42
Cut corners
To do something easiest , cheapest or fastest way
43
Hit the jackpot
To win the largest prize in the competition or game / to achieve great success
44
True colours
True personality
45
Bird eyes view
The ability to look at something from a very high place so that you see a large area below you
46
Take something with a grain of salt
To understand that something is likely to be control or incorrect
47
Get up on The wrong side of the bed
Start the day in a bad mood which continuous all day long
48
Speak one's mind
To say what you think about something very directly
49
Pass the buck
Shift the responsibility for something to someone else
50
Chew the cud
To think slowly and carefully about something
51
Apple pie order
In perfect order
52
Pipe dream
An idea or plan that is impossible or very unlikely to happen
53
At cross purposes
Disagreeing with each other's ideas
54
Play/ do something by the ear
To decide what to do when you know what is happening rather than planning in advance
55
You snooze you lose
If you are not alert , you are likely to miss opportunities
56
Out of the blue
Unexpectedly
57
Tread / skate on thin ice
To be in a dangerous situation
58
No smoking without fire/ where there's smoke there's fire
There is always some truth behind a rumour or bad thing
59
In a soup
In trouble
60
Familiarity breeds contempt
Used to say that if you know someone very well stop respecting them because you have seen all of their bad qualities
61
To throw / pour cold water on
To criticize someone's opinions or ideas and stop people believing them or being excited about them
62
First and foremost
Most importantly ; more than anything else
63
A hard but to crack
A problem that is difficult to solve
64
Dance attendance
To do everything that someone ask you to and treat them in a special way
65
Half a loaf is better than none
Something is better than nothing, even if it is less than one wanted
66
To add fuel to the fire
Making things worse / worsened the difficult situation
67
Cost and arm and leg
To be very expensive. If/ when it comes to the crunch
68
Play it by ear
To decide how to deal with a situation as it develops rather than acting according to plans made earlier
69
Go the extra mile
To make more efforts than is expected of you
70
Give someone the benefit of the doubt
To decide that you will believe someone, even though you are not sure that what the person is saying is true
71
Memory / mid like sieve
To have a very bad memory : to be unable to remember things
72
Bite the bullet
To force yourself to do something unpleasant
73
Catch a tartar
To deal with a person who is more than one's match
74
Be all ears
Very attentive
75
To end in smoke
Something usually a plan that failed or ended unexpectedlyb
76
To make up one's mind
To decide what to do
77
Out of the blue
Completely unexpectedly
78
Completely unexpectedly
Went to sleep
79
The early bird catches the worm
A saying that means someone will have an advantage if they do something immediately, or before other people so it
80
Worth its weight in gold
Very valuable
81
A close shave
A narrow escape
82
A fish out of water
An uncomfortable position
83
Cut corners
To do something in a cheap and easy way
84
Chapter and verse
Provided minute details
85
Forty winks
A short nap during the day
86
Cut to the chase
Come to the point
87
Pay lip service
To publicly support or approve of something while actually taking no action to produce it
88
Like a cat in a hot bricks / tin roof
In a state of afitation
89
Head in the clouds
To daydream / cut off from reality
90
Green with envy
Extremely jealous of another person
91
Devil's advocate
One who presents a counter argument
92
Spill the beans
To leak the secret
93
Straight from the horse's mouth
From a dependable or reliable source
94
A hard but to crack
A problem that is difficult to solve
95
Few and far between
Very rare or do not happen very often
96
Ins and outa
Full details
97
An odd / aueer fish
A strange person
98
Fall flat
Fail completely to produce the intended or expected effect
99
Have a bash
To try to do something you have not done before
100
Once in blue moon
Very rare
101
Rub the wrong way
To annoy someone without intending TO
102
Haste make waste
If you do things too quickly , you can make mistakes
103
A quick buck
To make money quickly
104
To heart's content
To gain full satisfaction
105
High and mighty
Behaving as if you are much more important than other people
106
Queer pitch
Spoil somebody's chance of doing something
107
To have eggs on one's face
To be embarrased because of one's action
108
Chip on shoulder
Holding a grudge or grievance
109
A green horn
An unexperienced man
110
Throw cold water
Discourage
111
Cry for the moon
To desire the unattainable
112
A narrow escape
A situation in which you avoid danger although you very nearly do not
113
Halcyon days
A very happy or successful period in the past
114
Add a fuel to the fire
Make a situation worse
115
Bring someone to book
To punish someone and make that person explain their behaviour
116
Whistle in the dark
Pretend to be unafraid
117
Pell- mell
Very fast and not organized
118
On the cards
Something very likely to happen , occur or take place
119
Break a leg
Good luck
120
