60 Idiomatic Expressions Commonly Coming Out at Various Examinations

Connotative meaning is an associative or implied meaning attached to a word, a phrase, or a sentence. Therefore, the features below should be discussed under connotative meaning. They include idioms and idiomatic expressions.

Idioms

An idiom is a fixed group of words or an expression with a special meaning that cannot be literally interpreted and understood.

It is also different from the meanings of the individual words. Thus, be all eyes is not connected with anything done to all eyes; it means to watch intently or be vigilant.

For the reason above, one will find the idiomatic expressions difficult to interpret if one is not familiar with them and their meanings. Let us learn more idiomatic expressions below.

More Idiomatic Expressions

There are idiomatic expressions in the English language but some of them with their meanings will be learnt here.

	Idiomatic Expressions	Meanings
1.	With a pinch of salt,	some doubt whether it is altogether true.
2.	Keep an open door	to be ready to welcome guests at any time
3.	Be/Keep abreast of something	to be always aware the of latest news or ideas
4.	A chapter of accidents	a series of unfortunate events
5.	(Have) an ace up one’s sleeve	keep a useful plan, piece of information, etc
	(Have) an ace in the hole	secret and ready to be used when necessary
6.	Hold all theahave have	have all the advantages
7 .	Once in a blue moon	rarely/seldom/occasionally
8.	Smell a rat	be suspicious
9.	A chip off the old block	a son who is very like his father
10.	More haste, less speed	approach whatever you are doing carefully to avoid mistake
11.	Play to the gallery	attempt to win cheap popularity
12.	Living a cat-and-dog life	always quarrelling with each other
13.	Let sleeping dog lie	not looking for trouble/give peace a chance
14.	Act/Play fool	behave in a silly way to amuse others
15.	Action speakers louder than words	what someone actually does means more than what he says he will do
16.	Swing into action	act quickly
17.	Add fuel to the flames	to say something that makes people react more strongly
18.	Add insult to injury	make something worse
19.	A state of affairs	a situation or circumstance
20.	Keep one at arm’s length	avoid being familiar with somebody
21.	Be above board	open/without deception
22.	Stand one’s ground	maintain one’s position
23.	Develop cold feet	feel afraid or reluctant or unwilling to do something that is risky
24.	Feather his own nest	make himself rich
25.	Being led by the nose	being controlled completely
26.	A bone of contention	a cause of dispute
27.	Come to a head	reach a point where something has to be done or decided
28.	Paid in one’s coin	Revenge
29.	Pull the wool over one’s eye	Deceive
30.	Talking with his tongue in his cheek	not sincere or saying something and meaning the opposite
31.	With malice aforethought	with deliberate intention to commit a crime to marry
32.	To the altar	to marry
33.	Be poles apart	be widely separated/having nothing in common
34.	The apple of one’s eye	a person loved more than others
35.	Argue the toss	disagree about a decision
36.	In apple-pie order	very neat arrangement
37.	Up in arms	protesting strongly
38.	Under the auspices of	with help or support of
39.	Have an axe to grind	have a private reason for something
40.	Have the ball at one’s feet	have a good chance of succeeding
41.	A baptism of fire	a difficult introduction to an experience
42.	Not to mince words	to speak plainly in condemnation of something
43.	Beat about the bush	approach the subject without coming directly to the point
44.	Kick the bucket	Die
45.	To cross the Rubicon	to be irreversibly or irrevocably committed
46.	Tarred with the same brush	had the same faults
47.	To take the bull by the horns	to tackle problems boldly
48.	Rain cats and dogs	rain heavily
49.	Let the cat out of the bags	reveal the secret
50.	Raise eyebrows or see red eyes	annoy or angry
51.	From the bottom of one’s heart	sincerely, seriously
52.	Have a thick skull	be stupid
53.	Bite off more than one can chew	attempt doing something too much
54.	A tip of the iceberg	very little
55.	A chip on one’s shoulder	feeling quarrelsome and being in a bad temper
56.	Throw a new light on the matter	provide a fresh information which makes the matter clear
57.	Kill two birds with one stone	get two outcomes with one action or do two things at a time
58.	Nipped in the bud	not successful or was aborted
59.	Make a clear breast of	tell the whole truth about
60.	Like a bat out of hell	very fast

Uses of some of the Expressions

To Identify and know the meanings of idiomatic expressions are not enough, one also has to know how they are used correctly in sentences.

Using these expressions correctly will add to your scores under expression in your essays or letters. Remember that some of them can be used as a subject, a verb, an object or a complement and an adjunct. Let us learn some of them in the following sentences:

I tried to make a clear breast of the matter to the boss but he didn’t listen.
The General Manager makes them work like a bat out of hell.
Please, don’t let the cat out of the bag.
From the bottom of my heart, I love you.
The man killed the thief with malice aforethought.
The students are up in arms against bad practices of their management.
Everybody disagreed on that state of affairs.
There are more chapters of accident this year.
The boss and his employees are often living a cat-and-dog life.
Sade pulls the wool over my eyes often.

The expressions in the sentences above function as an adjunct, a verb, an object or a complement of the sentences. Now, we move on to the proverbs (wise sayings).