A List of Common Idioms - Palomar College

1 ESL Tutoring Center A List of Common Idioms Idiom Example What it means Keep your chin up It's hard to keep your chin up Remain cheerful in a difficult when everything is going wrong. situation In hot water Joey was in hot water after he In trouble broke Mrs. Smith's window. On the back burner I put baseball practice on the Delayed until later back burner while I studied for the test. Put your best foot forward Mom always encourages me to Leave a good first impression put my best foot forward on first day of school. Hit the books We're having a test tomorrow, Study so I'm going to hit the books tonight.

2 Cool as a cucumber Kelly was cool as cucumber Calm, not nervous when she told the teacher that her dog ate her homework. Piece of cake Learning to dive is a piece of Very easy cake. Wade through Our teacher gave us so much Work on a difficult or lengthy homework it took me four hours task to wade through it all! Butterflies in my stomach I always get butterflies in my A nervous, fluttery feeling in the stomach before a big game. stomach Be in the same boat With us both sick, we are in the Be in the same bad situation as same boat someone else Cost an arm and a leg Ta mar's new dress cost an arm Be extremely expensive and a leg!

3 Hold your horses Hold your horses! said Mom as Stop or wait I reached for a cookie. They are still too hot to eat.. Pulling someone's leg When Uncle Bert said he used to Teasing someone be a pirate, he was just pulling my leg. Spill the beans Don't spill the beans to Dan Tell a secret about his surprise birthday party! Get off someone's back Dad won't get off my back until I Stop nagging or reminding take out the trash. someone about something Turn over a new leaf Cissy promised to turn over a Make a positive change in your new leaf and keep her room behavior clean form now on.

4 All thumbs When it comes to sewing, I'm all Clumsy, or not very good at thumbs. doing something ESL Tutoring Center Idiom Example What it means Break a leg Right before I walked out on Have good luck stage, my mother told me to break a leg. Get up on the wrong side of the Evan was so grumpy I knew he Be in a bad mood bed must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. Go out on a limb I'll go out on a limb and say that Take a chance our team will win the championships this year. Tongue-tied I'm always tongue-tied when I Unable to think of something to meet someone new.

5 Say Turn the house upside down Angie turned the house upside Search everywhere down, but she still couldn't find her library book. In over your head I just want you to know you're Doing something that is more not my first choice for the job, so difficult than you are able to deal if you're in over your head, with please tell me. Drag one's feet The committee is dragging its Deliberately take too much time feet too long in terms of making to do something a decision. A few resource web sites: Some of the most important ways to learn English Idioms paying attention to English speakers' ways of speaking asking English speakers what they mean when you do not understand an expression looking up in a dictionary or on the computer word groups you do not understand reading magazines and newspapers