English Idioms
Idioms and idiomatic expressions in English
An idiom is a group of words in current usage having a meaning that is
not deducible from those of the individual words.
For example,- "to rain
cats and dogs" - which means "to rain very heavily"
-"over the moon" - which means "extremely happy"
*In
both cases, you would have a hard time understanding the real meaning
if
you did not already know these idioms!*
Idioms
If something is above board, it's been done in a legal and honest way.
If someone is above the law, they are not subject to the laws of a society.
An Achilles' heel is a weakness that could result in failure.
If something is across the board, it relates to all without exception.
If you add fuel to the fire, you do something to make a bad situation even worse.
Someone adds insult to injury if they say or do something to upset you a second time,
after you've already been upset somehow.
If you do something against all odds, or
against all the odds, you do it even though
there were many problems and
it didn't seem possible to do.
If two people agree to differ, or agree to
disagree, they accept that they have
different opinions about something
and stop trying to change each other's opinion.
You are ahead of the game if you have an
advantage over your competitors in any
activity in which you try to do
better than others, such as in business, academia, sports, etc.
beside the point
You can say something is beside the point
if it has nothing to do with what's being
talked about or with the
reason something is being done.
Something is true "beyond a shadow of a doubt" if there is no possibility at all that it isn't true.
If you bite your tongue, or hold your tongue, you force yourself not to say something you
really want to to say.
day to day
If something happens day to day, it's part of the usual daily routine.
do you the world of good
If something does you the world of good, it makes you feel a lot better.
If you do your best, you do something as well as you possibly can, or to the best of your ability.
