English idioms A–Z, with meanings and examples

How to use this list

Read for recognition first, production much later. The entire value of knowing an idiom, for most learners, is understanding it when somebody else uses it — and that is a low bar you can clear in an afternoon by reading down the meanings column. Using them yourself is a different skill, it goes wrong in public, and it is worth being slow about.

When you do start using them, take five and only five. Pick five that describe situations you are actually in — a deadline, a disagreement, a piece of good luck — and use those five until they are automatic. A speaker who deploys five idioms naturally sounds fluent; a speaker who scatters twenty sounds like a phrasebook, because native speakers do not use idioms at anything like that density.

Check the register column before you write one down. About half of these are neutral enough for a work email and half are conversational, and the difference is invisible from the meaning alone. In an exam essay an idiom reads as informality rather than range, which is the opposite of what it was deployed to show — the place they genuinely pay off is speaking.

And say them whole. An idiom is one item of vocabulary that happens to have spaces in it: the article, the number and the preposition are all part of it. Hit the nail on the head cannot become hit a nail, and once in a blue moon has no comparative. Learn the string, not the words in it.

What an idiom says, and what it means

Every idiom on this page is a small scene borrowed for a meaning it has nothing to do with. That gap is the whole difficulty — and it is also the way in, because the scene is far easier to remember than the definition. The table below carries the picture for all 60 of them in its third column.

Idiom, proverb or saying — and why the difference matters

These three behave differently in a sentence, and mixing them up produces the mistake that marks a learner out faster than a wrong tense does: conjugating something that is already a complete sentence.

• Idiom

  A phrase that slots into a sentence and takes its tense and subject from the sentence around it. It is not a complete thought on its own.

  Somebody spilled the beans before the announcement.

• Proverb

  A complete sentence offering general advice. It is quoted whole and never conjugated — you cannot put a proverb in the past tense.

  I would wait and see. Actions speak louder than words.

• Fixed saying

  A conversational formula with a fixed job — opening a question, closing a subject, refusing an idea. It sits beside the sentence rather than inside it.

  You have been quiet. A penny for your thoughts?

The rule of thumb: if it has a subject and a verb of its own, it is a proverb and you quote it whole. If it starts with a verb in the infinitive, it is an idiom and the sentence around it decides the tense.

All 60 idioms, A to Z

Sorted alphabetically, ignoring a and the — so the bottom line is filed under B, as a dictionary would file it. Sort by any other column by tapping its heading; play any row to hear it said at natural speed.

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• K
• L
• M
• N
• O
• P
• R
• S
• T
• U
• W

The same list, sorted by the picture it paints

Idioms are easier to remember in families than in alphabetical order, because the image is what the memory hangs on. These eight groups cover the whole list, and reading one group is a better ten minutes than reading ten scattered entries.

Animals 8

The oldest layer of English idiom, and the one that survives best in translation — most languages have their own version of the early bird.

• count your chickens — to assume success before it happens
• the early bird catches the worm — those who act first gain an advantage
• the elephant in the room — an obvious problem no one wants to discuss
• kill two birds with one stone — to solve two problems with one action
• let sleeping dogs lie — to avoid stirring up an old problem
• once bitten, twice shy — being cautious after a bad experience
• when pigs fly — something that will never happen
• a wild goose chase — a hopeless search for something

Food and drink 6

Nearly all of these are informal, and nearly all are about difficulty or about telling secrets.

• a hot potato — a controversial issue people avoid dealing with
• the icing on the cake — an extra good thing that improves something
• piece of cake — something very easy to do
• a piece of the pie — a share of something, such as profit
• put all your eggs in one basket — to risk everything on one thing
• spill the beans — to reveal a secret

Weather and sky 8

A British specialism. If an expression is about mood or bad luck, the odds are good that it involves clouds.

• break the ice — to make people feel more relaxed in a new situation
• the calm before the storm — a quiet period before trouble
• every cloud has a silver lining — every bad situation has a good side
• on cloud nine — extremely happy
• once in a blue moon — very rarely
• steal someone’s thunder — to take credit for another person's idea
• a storm in a teacup — a lot of anger about an unimportant matter
• under the weather — feeling slightly ill

The body 6

Body idioms tend to be about cost, luck and narrow escapes — and they are the ones most likely to be understood literally by mistake.

• by the skin of your teeth — only just; barely succeeding
• a chip on your shoulder — a lasting feeling of resentment
• cost an arm and a leg — to be very expensive
• get out of hand — to become impossible to control
• off the top of my head — from memory, without checking
• a slap on the wrist — a very mild punishment

Water and boats 4

Sea idioms are shared fate and missed chances. An island language keeps its shipping metaphors.

• a drop in the ocean — a very small amount compared to what is needed
• in the same boat — in the same difficult situation as others
• miss the boat — to miss a chance by being too slow
• the tip of the iceberg — a small sign of a much bigger problem

Sport and games 4

Whose turn it is, and when to stop. These are the safest idioms in a work email, because business English adopted them long ago.

• the ball is in your court — it is your turn to take action
• go the extra mile — to make more effort than is expected
• throw in the towel — to give up
• the whole nine yards — everything; the full amount

Work and tools 12

The register here is neutral to formal — this is the family a report can use without sounding chatty.

• add fuel to the fire — to make a bad situation worse
• back to the drawing board — to start again after a failed attempt
• bite the bullet — to force yourself to do something difficult
• burn bridges — to destroy relationships you may later need
• burn the midnight oil — to work late into the night
• call it a day — to stop working on something for now
• cut corners — to do something cheaply or quickly, ignoring quality
• a double-edged sword — something with both good and bad effects
• hit the nail on the head — to describe exactly what is causing a problem
• the last straw — the final problem that makes a situation unbearable
• a needle in a haystack — something almost impossible to find
• sit on the fence — to avoid choosing between two sides

Everyday life 12

Books, money, music, fences: ordinary things doing figurative work. The largest family and the hardest to guess from the words.

• actions speak louder than words — what you do matters more than what you say
• beat around the bush — to avoid saying something directly
• the best of both worlds — the benefits of two different things at once
• the bigger picture — the most important overall view of a situation
• a blessing in disguise — something bad that turns out to be good
• the bottom line — the most important fact or final result
• face the music — to accept the unpleasant results of your actions
• the grass is always greener — others' situations always seem better
• jump on the bandwagon — to join something because it is popular
• on the same page — in agreement and understanding each other
• a penny for your thoughts — a way of asking what someone is thinking
• read between the lines — to understand a hidden meaning

Which of these can you use in writing?

The commonest question about idioms is not what they mean — it is whether using one will cost marks. The honest answer has three parts.

In a work email or a report, the neutral half of this list is fine and largely invisible: cut corners, the bottom line, on the same page and go the extra mile long ago stopped reading as figurative language in business English. Nobody will notice, which is exactly the point.

In an academic essay or an exam, use none of them. Not because they are wrong, but because the examiner reads an idiom as a register slip rather than as vocabulary range, and there is always a plainer phrase that scores better. The one exception is a discussion section quoting somebody else's words.

In speech, use the informal ones freely — this is where idioms earn their keep. Fluency is partly a matter of having ready-made chunks to reach for, and an idiom is the readiest chunk there is.

The register column in the table above marks each one: 35 are neutral enough for writing and 25 belong in speech.