Idioms and phrases part 3

Paint the town red	Have a lively time
Keep the finger crossing	Wait expectantly
At odds	In dispute
Make ducks and drakes	Squandered lavishly
No love lost	Intense dislike
Ride the high horse	Puts in airs
Pull a long face	Looks indifferent
Beside the mark	Irrelevant
Fill in	To tell someone the details about someone or something
Send(one) about one’s business	To send someone away , usually in an unfriendly way
Run in the same groove	Advance in harmony
Wolf in sheep’s clothing	Hypocrite
Chewing the cuds	To muse on, to chat , in an aimless manner
At ease	Embarrassed
Cut corners	Simplify the producers
At the drop of hat	Without delay
Burning question	A widely debated issue
Paddle of own canoe	Depended on himself
At cross purposes	Misunderstanding of each other’s purposes
In raptures	Very enthusiastic
Out of place	Inappropriate
Gets on nerves	Irritate
Wear heart on sleeves	Exposing innermost feeling to others
Like a duck in a thunderstorm	Distressed
Herculean task	Work required great effort
An eye to the main chance	Object to make money
Make flesh creep	Frightened
Himself to himself	In unsociable
Leave high and dry	To leave some one unsupported and unable to manoeuvre
Call in questions	Challenges
Means business	Earnest /sincere
A left handed compliment	An insincere
Once in a while	Occasionally
Kick heels	waste time
Lying down	To show no reaction
Gone down the drained	Wasted

in the offing	About to start
Design on	To have plans to exploit or somehow take of someone advantage or something
Queer fish	Strange person
Broken reed	A frustrated man
Gather roses only	Seek all the enjoyment of life
At sea	Confused
Lay by the heels	Chance and capture
Hanky-panky	Jugglery
Stick one’s neck out	To Take a risk
Mare’s nest	A false invention
Back-chat	Impertinent/disrespectful remarks
Bear in mind	Remember
To cut your teeth	To gain experience
Keeping up appearances	Maintaining outward show
Heads will roll	People will get into serve trouble
Little elbow	Freedom
A bee in bonnet	An obsession about something
Gift of the gab	Fluency of speech
Turn hand	Adapt himself to
Fell flat	Had not effect
Gentleman on large	Has no serious occupation
White elephant	Useless
To let the bygones be bygones	Ignore the past
Come to the crunch	Decisive movement
Keeps a good table	Entertain guest sumptuously
Draw the long bone	Exaggerate
Burn the candle a both end	Overtaxing his energies
Hold the enemy at bay	Prevented the enemy from coming near
To keep the pot boiling	Keep the controversy alive
Far cry	A long way off
Bolt from the blue	Sudden Sock
Win Hands down	Win easily
On and off	At intervals
With a high hand	Oppressively
Make no bone	Do without hesitation
Get hold of the wrong end of the stick	Misjudge the situation
On the wan	Declining
Cool as cucumber	Calm and composed

Catch 22	Absurd , a dilemma or difficult circumstance form which there is no escape because of mutually conflicting of dependent conditions
Pell-mell	In a disorderedly manner
Plough a lonely furrow	Do without the help of others
Great hand	Expert at
Heap coals on someone’s t head	Make someone feel sorry
Cocksure	Perfectly confident
Cuts both ends	Argument in support of both sides of the issue
Feather own nest	Act for won future benefits
Throw down the gauntlet	Challenge someone, Behaved as very great and important person
On tenterhooks	An anxious suspense
Ride rough shod over	Treat harshly
Do a good turn by	Do a favour
On its last leg	About to perish/expire
Heart out	Suffer silently
Have the mind	Have the willingness
Cushy job	Financial comfortable job
Now and then	Occasionally
Midas touch	Ability to success in all projects
Paint with bright colour	Exaggerated
To set the Thames on fire	A heroic deed
On the wrong side of fifty	Over fifty years old
Out of question	Unthinkable
Brought matters to a head	Create an atmosphere of confrontation
In a jiffy	In a hurry
Double dealing	Deception
Blow own trumpet	To tell other people how good and successful you are
Let the grass grow under the feet	Stayed out
Cut someone dead	To ignore someone totally
Make both end meet	Earn enough
Make light	Treat lightly
Wear the trousers	Dominant
Hole and corner	Secret
Steal someone’s thunder	To lessen someone’s force
Yeoman service	Free, generous help
To the backbone	Completely

Lynch law	Law of the mob
Bitten of more than chew	Trying do to too much
Stalking horse	Trick , something that is used to hide someone’s real purpose
Make hay while the sun rises	Make the best use of a favourable situation
On the wane	Growing less
Lying down	Show no reaction
Cut out	Suitable
Showing wild oats	Going through a period of irresponsible pleasure seeking
The thin end of the wedge	The beginning of further concessions
To foot the bill	To pay
Breathing down	Watching all actions closely
At a lose end	Nothing to do
As ugly as sin	Exceptionally ugly
Elbow grease	Hard work
In a soup	In trouble
Gall and war mode	A source of anger
At a loss	To be confused
Sitting on the fence	Hesitate between two options
Pretty pass	In a difficulty
A bad business	An unfortunate event
Make no bone about	To admit something readily
Turn out crabs	End in failure
Devil’s advocate	On who is against the religion
Dance attendance upon	To Flatter
Go a begging	Go in vain
Grid up one’s lions	Get ready for the job
Run the gauntlet	Face criticism
Aegean stable	To remove on evil
Call one’s shots	Make intention clear
Tread on one’s toes	To give offense
Take time by the forelock	Prepare action before time
To steer clear of	Avoid
To beat a retreat	To march back after a ceremonious parade
Under one’s own storm	With one’s own effort
In the sequel	Later on
A fifth columnist	Traitor
Not for nuts	Under no circumstances