Idioms and their Stories is the first of a four volume series, based on the popular column, Know Your English, which has been a regular feature in The Hindu since 1982.

Teachers, students, and those who are keen on honing their speaking and writing skills will find the series useful. This volume contains a selection of more than 300 idioms, and each entry gives the meaning of the idiom, provides examples of its use, and wherever possible, traces its origin. 

1. Above board
2. Achilles’ heel
3. Across the board
4. Adam’s ale
5. Add insult to injury
6. A lick and a promise
7. Albatross around the neck
8. All ears
9. All hell broke loose
10. All thumbs
11. Always a bridesmaid and never a maid
12. American dream
13. Apple of one’s eye
14. Apple of discord
15. Apple pie order
16. Argus-eyed
17. Armchair critic
18. Arms of Morpheus
19. Ask for the moon
20. Asleep at the switch
21. Axe to grind
22. Back to square one
23. Bad egg
24. Baker’s dozen
25. Bald as a coot
26. Banana republic
27. Band-aid solution
28. Bark up the wrong tree
29. Barkis is willing
30. Bat an eyelid
31. Be on one’s high horse
32. Beat around the bush
33. Beck and call
34. Bells and whistles
35. Belly up
36. Best (greatest) thing since sliced bread
37. Between the devil and the deep blue sea
38. Between Scylla and Charybdis
39. Beyond his ken
40. Beyond the pale
41. Big fish in a small pond
42. Bigwig
43. Bite the bullet
44. Bite the dust
45. Bite your tongue
46. Blackball
47. Blaze a trail
48. Blow one’s own trumpet/horn
49. Blue blood
50. Bolt from the blue
51. Bone of contention
52. Born with a silver spoon in the mouth
53. Boot is on the other foot
54. Boxing day
55. Bread and butter
56. Bread and butter letter
57. Break the ice
58. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
59.  Bring home the bacon
60. Brown noser
61. Bull in a China shop
62. Burn one’s boats
63. Burn the candle at both ends
64. Burn the midnight oil
65. Bury the hatchet
66. Bury your head in the sand
67. Buttonhole someone
68. Busman’s holiday
69. Cakewalk
70. Call a spade a spade
71. Called on the carpet
72. Can’t hold a candle to someone
73. Can’t see the wood for the trees
74. Carrot and stick approach
75. Carry coals to Newcastle
76. Catch as catch can
77. Catch-22
78. Catch a few rays
79. Cat’s whiskers
80. Caught in the crossfire
81. Chasing rainbows
82. Cheek by jowl
83. Chew the fat
84. Chink in the armour
85. Chip off the old block
86. Chips are down
87. Chip on one’s shoulder
88. Cleanse the Augean stables
89. Closed book
90. Cloud-cuckoo-land
91. (On) Cloud nine
92. (In) Clover
93. Cock a snook at
94. Cock and bull story
95. Cold feet
96. Cold storage
97. Cook someone’s goose
98. Cost an arm and a leg
99. Cross the bridge when you come to it
100. Curate’s egg
101. Curl one’s hair
102. Curry favour
103. Cut and dried
104. Cut and run
105. Cut no ice
106. Cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face
107. Cut your eye teeth on something
108. D-day
109. Damp squib
110. Dark horse
111. Davy Jones’ locker
112. Deep pockets
113. Dog’s breakfast
114. Dog days
115. Donkey’s years
116. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
117. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth
118. Doubting Thomas
119. Draw first blood
120. Dress (up) to the nines
121. Drink like a fish
122. Drop like a hot potato
123. Drop of a hat
124. Dry as dust
125. Dutch act/cure
126. Dutch courage
127. Ears are burning
128. Ear to the ground
129. Eat crow
130. Eat humble pie
131. Eat out of one’s hand
132. Egghead
133. Egg on one’s face
134. Even Homer sometimes nods
135. Elephant in the room
136. Excuse/pardon my French
137. Face in the crowd
138. Face the music
139. Fall like ninepins
140. Fall on stony ground
141. Feather in one’s cap
142. Feeling blue
143. Final nail in the coffin
144. Find one’s feet
145. Firing on all cylinders
146. Fish in troubled waters
147. Flog a dead horse
148. Flotsam and jetsam
149. Fly-by-night operators
150. Fly off the handle
151. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
152. Foot the bill
153. Get down to brass tacks
154. Get in someone’s hair
155. Get it in the neck
156. Get on the soapbox
157. Get one’s head out of the clouds
158. Get someone’s goat
159. Get the walking papers
160. Get to the bottom of something
161. Get up on the wrong side of the bed
162. Get wind of something
163. Get your act together
164. Ghost walks
165. Give a dog a bad/ill name and hang him
166. Give someone an even break
167. Give someone the bird
168. Give someone the cold shoulder
169. Give someone the runaround
170. Give someone the third degree
171. Give your eye teeth for something
172. Go bananas
173. Go fly a kite
174. Go off the deep end
175. Go in one ear and out the other
176. Go to pot
177. Go to someone’s head
178. Gobbledygook
179. Good as it gets
180. Grapevine
181. Greased lightning
182. Green with envy
183. Greenhorn
184. Green room
185. Grinning like a Cheshire cat
186. Grow on someone
187. Hair of the dog that bit someone
188. Hand in glove
189. Handsome is as handsome does
190. Hangdog expression
191. Hard to swallow
192. Hats off to someone
193. Haul someone over the coals
194. Have/got the runs
195. He who pays the piper calls the tune
196. Hit below the belt
197. Hit the ground running
198. Hit the sack/hay
199. Hobson’s choice
200. Hoist with one’s own petard
201. Hook, line and sinker
202. (By) Hook or by crook
203. Horse sense
204. Horse-trading
205. Horses for courses
206. Hot potato
207. Hot under the collar
208. I’m a Dutchman
209. In Dutch
210. In one’s good books
211. In the doghouse
212. In the doldrums
213. In the wake of something
214. Iron out the wrinkles
215. Jack Robinson
216. Joined at the hip
217. Kangaroo court
218. Keep a straight face
219. Keep it under your hat
220. Keep one’s eyes peeled
221. Keep one’s fingers crossed
222. Keep your powder dry
223. Keep your shirt on
224. Kick the bucket
225. Knee high to a grasshopper
226. Knee-jerk response/reaction
227. Knock the socks off
228. Know one’s onions
229. Know which side the bread is buttered
230. Last but not least
231. Learn the ropes
232. Leave someone holding the bag
233. Laugh up your sleeve
234. Lead someone down/up the garden path
235. Leave no stone unturned
236. Leave someone cold
237. Left-handed compliment
238. Left holding the baby
239. Let one’s hair down
240. Let someone cool their heels
241. Let the cat out of the bag
242. Let the chips fall where they may
243. Let the grass grow under one’s foot
244. Level best
245. Lick into shape
246. Like a cat on a hot tin roof
247. Line one’s pockets
248. Lion’s share
249. Live high off the hog
250. Live the life of Riley
251. Live up to its billing
252. Lock horns with
253. Long face
254. Long in the tooth
255. Look like death warmed over
256. Look like something the cat dragged in
257. Look the other way
258. Loose cannon
259. Lose face
260. Lost in the shuffle
261. Love me