Abhirupa Purkayastha – Simplifying Life

Are you an eager beaver? She just wrote a Dear John Letter! Mom’s going to have a cow when she sees the mess. So, who wears the pants in your family? You were a wet blanket at that party. Don’t upset the applecart. They jawboned me into signing the contract. I was  ill at ease before the cameras. The truth was shocking; he was in cahoots with the crooks. Don’t let your plants go to pot? He’s a chain smoker and it’s going to be very difficult for him to kick the habit? The villagers were taken in by his larger than life personality. Don’t be late or else you’re going to miss out on all the fun at the party.

The underlined sentences are idioms. Wikipedia defines idioms as

An idiom (Latin: idioma, “special property”, from Greek: ?????? – idí?ma, “special feature, special phrasing, a peculiarity”, f. Greek: ????? – ídios, “one’s own”) is a phrase or a fixed expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. An idiom’s figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.There are thousands of idioms, and they occur frequently in all languages. It is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language.

Well, can’t cover 25,000 idioms in a post! Over here I will be covering 60 popular idioms that writers must know by heart. Happy reading!

A

 

1) Accident waiting to happen – A situation or a thing that will lead to disaster

2) All ears – To listen carefully

3) Ahead of time – In advance

4) All the rage – Very popular in the recent times, current fad

5) All that glitters is not gold – Something that may appear precious at the surface but when looked closely is of no value

6) At the eleventh hour – At the last moment

7) All roads lead to Rome – Different methods producing the same result

8) All sizzle and no steak – Something that’s a promising start but ends on a disappointing note

9) All show and no go – Looks good but very low on performance quotient

9) Add insult to injury – To make a bad situation worse

10) Add fuel to the fire/flame – To worsen the situation

11) Against the grain – To go against one’s feelings

12) All thumbs – Extremely clumsy

13) Artsy-fartsy – Pretentious

14) Avoid something like the plague – Stay away from something/someone

15) Ahead of the curve – Better than the others, leading in a situation

      B

 

1) Babe in the woods – Innocent person

2) Bail someone out – To help someone come out of a difficult situation

3) Bad blood – Hostile feelings

4) Bag of tricks – A collection of techniques to overcome a bad situation

5) Bait and switch – Deceptive advertising

6) Ball is in your court – You have to do something about the situation

7) Bear fruit – Be successful

8) Beat around the bush – Speaking indirectly

9) Beaten path – The conventional way

10) Beauty is only skin-deep – Outside looks aren’t important

11) (A) Bed of roses – Easy situation

12) Beef up – To make something effective ; strengthen up something

13) Behind the times – Old fashioned

14) Bells and whistles – Attractive additional features

15) [A] bird in the hand is worth two in the bush – If you’ve something valuable then it’s better to be content with it rather than losing it to get something that you think might be better.

C

1) Call the shots – Make decisions

2) Call a spade a spade – Giving brutally honest feedback

3) Cake walk – An easy thing

4) Call it a day – The day’s work is complete

5) Call it quits – To quit

6) Carry a lot of weight – Important

7) Cash it on – To take advantage of

8) Carry a torch for someone – To have a crush on someone

9) Castles in the air – Big dreams

10) Catch one’s eye – Attract someone’s attention

11) Climb on the bandwagon – Join others in supporting a cause

12) Cold feet – To lose confidence; being nervous about a situation

13) Come hell or high water – No matter what happens

14) Cream of the crop – The best of all

15) Cut some slack – Be lenient

D

 

1) Dash something off – To jot down a quick note.

2) Dead set against – To oppose something

3) Dear John Letter – A woman writing a break up letter

4) Devil may care attitude – Carefree attitude

5) Do someone’s heart good – To make someone feel good emotionally

6) Dirt cheap – Very cheap

7) Don’t put the cart before the horse – Arrange things in proper order

8) Dog-eat-dog – It’s a situation where people can do anything to succeed, even it means harming others

9) Damsel in distress – A woman who needs rescuing from a troublesome situation

10) Deep six – To discard

11) [A] Dead ringer – Look-alike

12) Dead Set Against – Completely opposed to something

13)Doesn’t hold candle to – Inferior, not as good as someone.

14) Do the trick – Achieving what you want

15) Dressed to the nines – Decked up with expensive clothes.

Will be covering the next alphabets & idioms very soon. BTW you might like to flip through a list of 100 confusing words that can ruin your content.

Want to add something more to this list? You can drop in your comments.