Important Idioms for English Learners

What is an idiom? An expression that cannot be understood from the meanings of its separate words but that has a separate meaning of its own.

Idioms were covered in an earlier book, “American English Idioms.” The following list is a list of important idioms for English learners, to help illustrate the figurative nature of idioms.

Important Idioms for English Learners

1. A hot potato: an issue (usually current) which people may fear to bring up in conversation because it is sure to cause a dispute.
2. A penny for your thoughts: a way of asking what someone is thinking.
3. Actions speak louder than words: People’s intentions can be judged better by what they do than what they say.
4. Ball is in your court: It is up to you to make the next decision or step.
5. Beat around the bush: Avoiding the main topic. Not speaking directly about the issue.
6. Best thing since sliced bread: A good invention or innovation. A good idea or plan.
7. Blessing in disguise: Something good that isn’t recognized at first.
8. Burn the midnight oil: To work late into the night.
9. Can’t judge a book by its cover: Cannot judge something primarily on.
10. Cross that bridge when you come to it: Deal with a problem if and when it becomes necessary, not before.
11. Cry over spilt milk: to complain about a loss from the past.
12. Cut corners: do something badly to save money.
13. Cut the mustard: to succeed; to come up to expectations; adequate enough to compete or participate
14. Don’t count your chickens before they have hatched: This idiom is used to express “Don’t make plans for something that might not happen”.
15. Don’t give up your day job: You are not very good at something. You could definitely not do it professionally.
16. Every cloud has a silver lining: Be optimistic, even difficult times will lead to better days.
17. Far cry from: Very different from.
18. Feel a bit under the weather: feel slightly ill.
19. Give the benefit of the doubt: Believe someone’s statement, without.
20. Hear it through the grapevine: hear rumors about something.
21. Jump on the bandwagon: Join a popular trend or activity.
22. Let sleeping dogs lie: do not do something to disturb a situation and cause trouble you could avoid.
23. Let the cat out of the bag: To share information that was previously concealed.
24. Make a long story short: Come to the point – leave out details.
25. Method to my madness: An assertion that, despite one’s approach seeming random, there actually is structure to it.
26. Not playing with a full deck: lacking intelligence, possibly crazy.
27. Off one’s rocker: crazy, demented, out of one’s mind, in a confused or befuddled state of mind, senile.
28. See eye to eye: This idiom is used to say that two (or more people) agree on something.
29. Sit on the fence: This is used when someone does not want to choose or make a decision.
30. Speak of the devil!: This expression is used when the person you have just been talking about arrives.
31. Steal someone’s thunder: To take the credit for something someone else.
32. Take with a grain of salt: This means not to take what someone says too.
33. Taste of your own medicine: Means that something happens to you, or is done to you, that you have done to someone else.
34. To hear something straight from the horse’s mouth: To hear something from the authoritative source.
35. Whole nine yards: All of it.