Important Idioms and Phrases

What are Idioms?

Idioms are a group of words or phrases that have a well-established and well-known metaphorical meaning. As a result, these statements cannot be taken literally since they would sound absurd. Idioms need not be grammatically correct too. Idioms are phrases that show human behaviors, reactions to particular situations, social characteristics, habits, and traditions.

Eg:

Apple of someone's eyes

Meaning: a person or thing that someone loves very much
Sentence: His youngest daughter is the apple of his eye as she is his firstborn.

A left-handed compliment

Meaning: An insult in the pretence of expression of appreciation.
Sentence: She said she liked my hair, but it turned out to be a left-handed compliment when she asked how long I'd been dyeing it.

Best Tricks to Learn Idioms and Phrases

One Step at a Time

Do not try to learn all idioms in a single day. It will lead to confusion and difficulty to revise. Set a specific number as a target and learn that many idioms daily. You can learn one pdf from the following series and revise it and the next day, learn the other 20 idioms.

Try to Relate Idioms with the Pictures and Visual Representation

This is one of the most effective approaches. When you listen to an idiom try to recreate its picture in your mind and then try to co-relate the picture with the idiom and its meaning. Refer to the following Picture to understand the point

Learn the Context of the Idioms

In reality, idioms are the result of life situations and are used to explain behaviors and situations. So, it is not always necessary to know the meaning. In fact, you try to learn and imagine the context of the situation in which idioms are used. . Try to comprehend the context in which an idiom or phrase was employed. It will help you better comprehend and remember a certain idiom. As a result, context is critical. There are numerous different phrases that may be used in the same context.

Try to use these idioms in daily communication to explain real-life scenarios.

Write a Essay/ Story/ Paragraph

This is a very effective approach especially for SSC CGL and SSC CHSL aspirants. You can try to write a paragraph on any particular topic and try to use idioms in that paragraph. This exercise will help you in your descriptive paper too. Students can also write a story which will increase their creative writing skills.

Learn, Write and Revise

When you read idioms try to hear properly and understand the tone of idiom, whether it is referring to positive tone or negative. Try to co-relate the meaning with the Sounds of the words present in the idioms. Once done with it, write the idioms and make a list of the idioms learned by you. This will help you memorize new idioms and then revise them at the regular time period

Important Idioms and Phrases

Top 15 Idioms on Food

S.No	List of Idioms	Meaning
1.	Big Cheese	A very important person
2.	Bread and Butter	the basic necessities of life
3.	Cup of Joe	A cup of coffee
4.	Out to lunch	Crazy or mad
5.	Use Noodle	use brain
6.	One smart cookie	An intelligent person
7.	Freeze one's bun off	to be cold
8.	Gravy train	Good pay for minimal work
9.	Peach fuzz	The small amount of hair growth
10.	Carrot Top	A person with orange/red hair.
11	Butter someone up	to be extra nice to someone
12	Nut about something/someone	Like something a lot
13.	Food for thought	worth consideration
14.	a bun in the oven	be pregnant
15.	the cream of the crop	the best

Top 20 Idioms on body parts

S.No	List of Idioms	Meaning
1.	Stiff Upper Lip	To remain brave under adverse conditions
2.	Tight-Lipped	Unwilling to speak about an event
3.	Music to Ears	Soothing to your ears
4.	By the skin of your teeth	succeed in doing something by a narrow margin
5.	Keep your chin up	Be courageous in adverse conditions
6.	Catch eye	come to one's notice
7.	See eye to eye	to agree with someone completely
8.	Pull the wool over eyes	to deceive someone
9.	Upper hand	to exercise authority
10.	Dab Hand	adept or skillful
11.	Backhanded compliment	A compliment that works as an insult.
12.	Sticky fingers	A strong inclination towards stealing.
13.	Pat on the back	To receive praise upon good work.
14.	foot the bill	to pay the bills
15.	Neck and Neck	Extremely near
16.	Yoke around neck	Trouble for someone
17.	Cost an arm and a leg	Very expensive.
18.	Tongue in cheek	say something jokingly while being serious
19.	Green around the gills	A person who looks sick
20.	Foam at the mouth	Get extremely angry.

Top 20 Idioms on Animals

S.No	List of Idioms	Meaning
1.	Cat Nap	Short sleep, usually during the day
2.	Wag the dog	To divert the attention from something bad
3.	Dog days	Hot and Sultry days
4.	Donkey Years'	A very long time
5.	Go to the dogs	Become unsuccessful or degrade in quality.
6.	A fish out of water	Become restless
7.	Drink like a fish	Drink heavily
8.	When Pigs fly	Something that is not possible or unlikely to occur
9.	Lion's share	The biggest part of the whole.
10.	Fish for a compliment	to make someone say good things about you
11	Get your Goat	to irritate someone/somebody
12	Pig-headed	Refers to a stupid often stubborn person
13.	The Cat's Meow	used to refer something great.
14.	The lion's den	Refers to an uncomfortable place
15.	Bring owls to Athens	Refers to a futile or useless attempt
16.	At a snail's pace	Moving at a very slow pace.
17.	Make a beeline for	Go hastily to someone or something
18.	An Ugly duckling	An unattractive child who becomes beautiful/successful once mature against all expectations.
19.	Bull in a china shop	To turn out aggressive when a situation that demands one to remain calm.
20.	Can of worms	something that is complicated