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English-language idioms

Common words or phrases with non-literal meanings From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

English-language idioms
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An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).[1][2] By another definition, an idiom is a speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements.[3] For example, an English speaker would understand the phrase "kick the bucket" to mean "to die" – and also to actually kick a bucket. Furthermore, they would understand when each meaning is being used in context.

To evoke the desired effect in the listener, idioms require a precise replication of the phrase: not even articles can be used interchangeably (e.g. "kick a bucket" only retains the literal meaning of the phrase but not the idiomatic meaning).

Idioms should not be confused with other figures of speech such as metaphors, which evoke an image by use of implicit comparisons (e.g., "the man of steel"); similes, which evoke an image by use of explicit comparisons (e.g., "faster than a speeding bullet"); or hyperbole, which exaggerates an image beyond truthfulness (e.g., "more powerful than a locomotive"). Idioms are also not to be confused with proverbs, which are simple sayings that express a truth based on common sense or practical experience. Another example can be "green fingers".

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Notable idioms in English

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This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by editing the page to add missing items, with references to reliable sources.
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See also

Notes

  1. [a]
    This expression refers to the fact that plans or blueprints are often drawn on a drawing board. It probably originated during World War II, most likely in the caption of a cartoon by Peter Arno published in The New Yorker.[16]
  2. [b]
    Originally a hunting term.
  3. [c]
    Originally a British slang term for a quadruple amputee during World War I.
  4. [d]
    The origin is unclear; it may simply have emerged in imitation of the numerous other animal-related nonsense phrases popular in the 1920s such as "the cat's pyjamas" or "the monkey's eyebrows",[21] or it may be a deliberate inversion of the earlier attested singular "bee's knee" used to refer to something small or insignificant.[22][20]
  5. [e]
    Alludes to burning oil to produce light in the time before electric lighting; originated with the English writer Francis Quarles who wrote: "Wee spend our mid-day sweat, or mid-night oyle; :Wee tyre the night in thought; the day in toyle."
  6. [f]
    At the turn of the century, wearing very long sideburns – called "mutton chops" – was common. A bust in the chops was to get hit in the face.
  7. [g]
    The phrase first appears in English in the Geneva Bible (1560), in Job 19:20, which provides a literal translation of the original Hebrew, "I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe." The original Hebrew בְּעוֹר שִׁנָּי (b'3or shinai) is a phono-semantic match of the Hebrew word בְּקוֹשִׁי (b'qoshi) which means "barely, hardly, with difficulty." It may never be known if this phrase became an idiom before the biblical book of Job was written, or if the word b'qoshi was mis-heard by a scribe.
  8. [h]
    Its 19th-century predecessor is seen in the line "It would have been best for Merlin... to quit and call it half a day", from the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) by American writer Mark Twain.
  9. [i]
    The word "chink" here is generally used in the sense of a crack or gap.
  10. [j]
    As of the English alphabet, which ranges from the first letter, A, to the last letter, Z.
  11. [k]
    Earliest usage unknown. In 1945, Bertrand Russell wrote of a logician's irritation that "the world is what it is";[52] by 1949 the full phrase appeared in the Nebraska State Journal.[53]
  12. [l]
    Since both "off one's trolley" and "off one's rocker" became popular in the late 1890s about the same time streetcars were installed in major American cities, and since "rocker", like "trolley", means the wheel or runner that makes contact with an overhead electric cable, it is likely that the "rocker" of the expression carries the same meaning as "trolley". "Off your trolley" may refer to the fact that when the wires are "off the trolley", the vehicle no longer receives an electric current and is, therefore, rendered inoperative.
  13. [m]
    This expression originated as aviation slang and referred to graphs of aerodynamic performance on which "the envelope" is the boundary line representing the limit of an aircraft's capabilities (especially its altitude and speed). It was popularized by Tom Wolfe's 1979 book The Right Stuff.[20]
  14. [n]
    The life of an agrarian community depends on the success of the local crops, which in turn depends on rain. In pre-industrial times, rain was widely appreciated as essential for survival.
  15. [o]
    The original text in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather reads: "'The fish means that Luca Brasi is sleeping on the bottom of the ocean,' he said. 'It's an old Sicilian message.'"
  16. [p]
    The expression is generally attributed to John Milton's 1645 poem L'Allegro, which includes the lines: "Com, and trip it as ye go,
    On the light fantastick toe."[81]
  17. [q]
    The idiom has another meaning; "with or against one's will", which was popularized from the expression "will he, nill he", found in Shakespeare's Hamlet.[86]
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References

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