Idioms and Phrases part 5

A damsel in distress	A helpless woman
At case	Easily
Acquainted with	To meet someone
To catch a tartar	To deal with someone or something that proves unexpectedly troublesome or powerful
Clean breast	Confessed without reserve
At close quarters	Close examinations
As fit as fiddle	Strong and healthy
At a loose end	Unoccupied , idle
At a loss	To be unable to decided
Assumes airs	To pretend to superiority
Bear the burnt of	To bear the main shock of
Bid defiance	To ignore
Break the news	To give the bad news
Beside oneself	To feel excessively
Bated breath	In anxiety , expectancy
Bandy words	To wrangle , to argue
Blue stocking	Educated but pedantic lady
Bring down the house	Receive applause
Brow beat	To bully
By dint of	By force of
Chip of the old block	Resembling one’s parents in habits
Cave in	Yield
Cloven off	The evil intention
Cut through	Though
Cheek by jowl	Close together
Come to a pass	Difficult situation
Cock a snook	To show impudent contempt
Dutch courage	Bravery under alcoholic influence
Dare devil	Fearless person
Down and out	Poor and ruined
Draconian law	Extremely serve law
Die hard	Persistent in struggle
Days of reckoning	Time to answer for someone’s answer
Down in the mouth	out of elements
Damp squib	Complete failure
Dog in the manager	A person who prevent s others from enjoying what he cannot
Eke out	Supplement income

Ever and anon	Now and then , sometimes
Flesh and blood	Human nature
Flash in the pan	Sudden success
Fly in the face of	To defy
Get off scot free	To escape without punishment
Grid up the loins	To prepare for hard work
Give a wild berth	To avoid
Gentleman at large	Unreliable person
Give the devil his due	Give credit to a wordless person for his good qualities
Give up the ghost	Pass away, die
Go to the whole hog	To do something thoroughly
Go broke	Become bankrupt
Get down to brass tacks	To deal with the matter straight
Hold water	Sound , tenable
Have feet of clay	Full of faults
Live-wire	Energetic
Look a gift house in the mouth	Criticize a gift
Lose one’s head	To be carried away
Latin and Greek	Incomprehensible
Make amends	To give compensation
Make light of	Not to care of
Midas touch	A touch which turns anything into gold
A past master	An expert
Pyrrhic victory	Victory at a high cost
Quixotic project	Foolishly ideal
Rule the roost	To dominate
Spartan life	Life of ascetic
Shot in the arm	Encouraging
Spick and span	In order
Seamy side of the life	Immoral side of society
Sow wild oats	Irresponsible pleasure seeking
Throw a spanner	To be defeated
Take wind out of another’s sails	To gain advantage by anticipation
Under the rose	Secretly
Up and doing	Active
Well disposed to	Friendly or helpful to somebody
Willy-nilly	Whether one wishes or not
Window shopping	To look at the goods displayed but not for

buying
Weal and woe	Joy and sorrow
Wide berth	Keep away
Wry face	Disappointed face
Yellow press	Newspaper publishing sensational news
Yeoman’s service	Excellent service
At back and call	At disposal
In the books off	In favour with
To run one down	To disparage someone
In character with	Found to be in keeping with
To get into a stew	To have an anxious state of mind
To go by	to be guided by
Put up with	Tolerate
Ran riot	Acted without restrained
Give in	Yield
Turn an honest penny	Make a legitimate living
Done for	Ruined
On the level	Mentally compatible
Went to the winds	Dissipated
Burnt his boats	Left no means of retreat
Brought up	Criticised vehemently
Cut no ice with me	Had no influence with me
A sore point	Something which hurt
Out of thin air	Appear suddenly
Join the majority	To die
To go for the juggler	To make a destructive attack
Lead somebody to the alter	To marry somebody
The primrose path	The pursuit of pleasure
Odds and ends	Miscellaneous things
To champ at the bit	To be restlessly impatient
With a flea in one’ ear	To be rebuked
Pie in the sky	Event likely to happen
On the blink	Not in the working order
The worse for wear	Shabby from use
To borrow beat	To bully
Come a cropper	To fail
The lie of the land	Assessment of a situation
Plain as pike staff	Very obvious
In tatters	Ruined

At a rate of knots	Sluggishly
Raise somebody’s hackle	To make somebody angry
A bread and butter letter	An appointment letter
Take up the cudgels	To support somebody
As the crow flies	In a straight line
With in an ace of	falling, escaping by a narrow margin
To play the ape	To mimic,
to imitate to go ape over	To be extremely enthusiastic over
In the arms of Morpheus	In the lap of sleep
No vie like avarice	Greed is greater than any other vice
To get the axe	To be dismissed from a job
A man before the mast	A common sailor
All the better to	Same to
To back side	To fall back in morals
To back spear	To question in order to bring out some information
On the ball	Alert ,competent
To forbid the banns	To object the banns
To sell one a bargain	To befool someone
To have a bash at	To attempt something for the first time
To have bats in one’s belfry	To have crazy ideas , to be very peculiar or foolish
To be at one’s beds	To worship
To tell one’s beads	To day ones prayer
To bear away the palm	To win
A bear garden	A place or scene of tumult
Narrow bed	Grave
To bill and coo	To whisper endearments as lovers
To make one’s bow	To appear first time in publically
To brace oneself for	To prepare for something unpleasant or difficult
Brain sauce	Wisdom
Bread and cheese	Simple food
As snug as a bug in the rug	Very cosy and snug
On the bum	Living the life of a tramp
To bury one’s head in the sand	To avoid the reality
To mean business	To be serious
To care a damn/farthing	To have no care at all
To carry with one	To satisfy

A cast of the eye	A squint
To cast into the shade	To make less noticeable
To catch/clutch at a straw	To try any expedient however useless
To cast a chill over	To spread sadness
To serve with the colours	To be a member of the armed forces
To condemn to death	To award punishment of death
A gone coon	One whose case is hopeless
Till the cows come home	For a long time
To cross one’s mind	To occur , strike
To cry Halves	To claim with equal share
To cry stinking fish	To decry one’s own good
To cry shame upon	To oppose, to protest against
Off the cuff	Imparting information ,
on credit in one’s cup	Under the influence of liquor
To cut somebody down	To kill somebody
To go to the devil	To fail completely
To die in shoes	To be murdered
A dog’s chance	No hope at all
To eat one’s terms	To study for the bar(law)
To bid fair	To seem likely
To fall aboard of	To start fighting/ quarrelling
To fall foul of	To quarrel
To chew the fat	To chat
To kill the fatted calf	To celebrate especially at a prodigal’s return
To ruffle somebody’s feather	To annoy somebody
To feel in one’s bone	To know or sense some thing intuitively
To snap one’s finger (at)	To show contempt for
To fish in troubled water	To try to win advantages for oneself from a disturbed state of affairs, to take advantage of troubled or uncertain conditions for personal gain n
To get into a flap	To be in a state of agitation , confusion, nervous, excitement etc.
The flesh	Physical or bodily desires , sensual appetites
To fly in the face of	To act in defiance of authority , facts , custom
To be nobody’s fool	To be wise
To fool around	To waste time
To the fore	Prominent
To blow the gaff	To revel a secret

To get into bad odour	To become popular
Worth one’s weight in cold	Invaluable
To cook one’s goose	To ruin one’s chances or plans completely
Gravy train	Source of much or easy; money
Like grim death	Very firmly
To let one’s hair down	To behave informally
To hand in one’s cheeks	To die
To run with the hue and hunt with the hounds	To be on good terms with both sides in a dispute
Hare and hound	Paper chase
To take up the hatchet	To prepare for or go to war
Heavy tidings	Bad news
Hell for leather	As quick as possible
Cat in hell’s chance	No chance at all
Like a bat out of hell	At top speed
High and mighty	Arrogant
A hill of beans	A thing of little value
to hoist with one’s own petard	To be caught in ones own trap
From the horse’s mouth	From a reliable source
To take issue	To be in disagreement
everyman jack	Everyone without exception
The cut of one’s jib	A person’s personal appearances or manner
To kick against the pricks	To hurt oneself by useless resistance
At the rate of knots	Very fast
The last straw	An addition to a task, burden, etc. Which strained one’s patience to the limit
To be all legs	To be a tall and very thin person
To have a hollow leg	To have a large appetite
A lick and a promise	A feeble attempt
Out on a limb	In a dangerous situation
To live by one’s wits	To get money by ingenious and irregular methods not necessarily honest
The devils own luck	Good luck
To have a memory like a sieve	To have a faint memory
Middle of the road	Average
To have a monkey on one’s back	To be addicted to narcotic drug
The mote in somebody’s eye	A very minor mistake (of somebody)
To go through the motions	To work carelessly
In a muck	In an untidy situation