Being angry about something that happened in the past.
A Dime a Dozen
Something that is extremely common.
A Fool and His Money are Soon Parted
It's easy for a fool to lose his/her money.
A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed
A true friend is someone who will help when you are in need.
A Piece of Cake
A task that is simple to complete.
An Arm and a Leg
Something that is extremely expensive.
All Greek To Me
When something is incomprehensible due to complexity or incorrectness. Unintelligble.
Back to Square One
To go back to the beginning; back to the drawing board.
Back To the Drawing Board
Starting over again on a new design from a previously failed attempt.
Barking Up The Wrong Tree
To make a wrong assumption about something.
Beating Around the Bush
Someone who is beating around the bush is someone who avoids the main point.
Beating a Dead Horse
To bring up an issue that has already been resolved.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
If you are stuck between a rock and a hard place, you are being faced with two difficult choices. A dilemma.
Break a Leg
Wishing for someone to "break a leg" means to wish them good luck.
Break The Ice
Breaking down a social stiffness or awkardness.
Close But No Cigar
Coming close to a successful outcome only to fall short at the end.
Cross Your Fingers
This can be said as well as gestured. Crossing your fingers is a superstious way of receiving good luck, or nullifying a promise.
Cup Of Joe
A cup of joe is an American nickname for a cup of coffee.
Curiosity Killed The Cat
To mind your own business. A warning to anyone being too curious, as your curiosity might lead you to harm.
Cry Over Spilt Milk
It is useless to worry about things that have already happened and cannot be changed.
Cut To The Chase
To get to the point, leaving out all of the unnecessary details.
Cut The Mustard
To cut the mustard is to meet a required standard, or to meet expectations.
Cry Wolf
Someone that calls for help when it is not needed. Someone who is lying.
Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch
Do not rely on something you are not sure of.
Don't Look a Gift Horse In The Mouth
When you receive a gift from someone, do not be ungrateful.
Double Whammy
When two problems show up at the same time, or when two setbacks take place at the same time.
Down to The Wire
Something that is coming down to the last second. A tense situation with the outcome decided in the last seconds.
Drawing a Blank
Failing to recall a memory. Unable to remember something.
Dropping Like Flies
To fall down ill or to die in large numbers.
Drive Me Nuts
To greatly frustrate someone. To drive someone crazy, insane, bonkers, or bananas.
Fish Out Of Water
Someone being in a situation that they are unfamiliar or unsuited for.
Flea Market
A type of bazaar where inexpensive goods are sold or bartered.
Foaming At The Mouth
To be enraged and show it.
Fool's Gold
Iron pyrities, a worthless rock that resembles gold.
Fit as a Fiddle
Being fit as a fiddle means to be in perfect health.
Phrases, sayings, idioms, whatever you want to call them, these things are commonly used by people in every day speech. Think about any common phrases you may have used recently. Maybe you have, at some point, been told to "break a leg" by a friend. Is your friend telling you to literally break your leg, or simply saying he hopes you do well? Let's hope it's the latter, because that is what the phrase means! Weird, right?
Or maybe you are going out on a date, and you know what the first thing two people do on a date is? They have to "break the ice!" Also known as that cold stiffness that can be present between two unknown individuals.
Whether you are breaking the ice, or your leg, have you ever wondered where these popular sayings come from, or what these common phrases even mean? I love to play word games, puzzle word games, or most any type of game related to words. Often times, the phrases we've come to know are used in such word games, so if you are curious like myself as to what they mean, then use the list below to quickly look up any phrases, sayings, or idioms you want to learn more about.
Get Up On The Wrong Side Of The Bed
Someone who is having a bad day.
Go For Broke
To risk it all, even if it means losing everything. To go all out.
Go Out On a Limb
If you go out on a limb (branch), you are putting yourself in a riskky situation to help someone or something.
Good Riddance
An expression used to show the pleasure of being rid of someone or something that was being annoying.
Goody Two-Shoes
A smugly virtuous person.
Gut Feeling
Having a gut feeling means to have an instinctive feeling about something. Intuition.
Easy As Pie
A task that is simple to accomplish.
Eaten Out Of House And Home
To eat so much as to put a strain on someone resources of food.
Eat My Hat
Being confident in the outcome of something to the point where you would eat your hat if you are wrong.
Elvis Has Left The Building
Something that is all over.
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining
To be optimistic, even in difficullt times.
Everything But The Kitchen Sink
Including nearly everything possible.
Excuse My French
An apology for using profranity.
Note: For most old phrases, sayings, and idioms, finding the exact person or date in which a phrase was originated is impossible. What's provided is the earliest known date the phrase or saying was being used in.
Usually the phrase is a quote from an old newspaper, book, poem, play, etc. If it is already being used by a newspaper though, then the saying must already be common knowledge among the people of that time. This means the origin of the saying is older.
For instance, if someone or something from 1660 is being quoted using a particular phrase or saying, you can assume that the saying must be older, as it's already popular and being commonly used in 1660. How far back varies from phrase to phrase.
There are some cases though where determining the origin from an exact person is possible, however these are not common. In short, most of the origins for these sayings give you a date so you can get a rough idea on when these phrases were being used.
These nouns refer to concise verbal expressions setting forth wisdom or a truth. A saying is an often repeated and familiar expression: a collection of philosophical sayings.
Maxim denotes particularly an expression of a general truth or a rule of conduct: "For a wise man, he seemed to me ... to be governed too much by general maxims" (Edmund Burke).
Adage applies to a saying that has gained credit through long use: a gift that gave no credence to the adage, "Good things come in small packages."
A motto expresses the aims, character, or guiding principles of a person, group, or institution: "Exuberance over taste" is my motto.
An epigram is a witty expression, often paradoxical or satirical and neatly or brilliantly phrased: In his epigram Samuel Johnson called remarriage a "triumph of hope over experience."
Proverb refers to an old and popular saying that illustrates something such as a basic truth or a practical precept: "Slow and steady wins the race" is a proverb to live by.
Phrase Definition:
1. A sequence of words intended to have meaning.
2.
a. A characteristic way or mode of expression.
b. A brief, apt, and cogent expression.
3. A word or group of words read or spoken as a unit and separated by pauses or other junctures.
4. Grammar Two or more words in sequence that form a syntactic unit that is less than a complete sentence.
5. Music A short passage or segment, often consisting of four measures or forming part of a larger unit.
6. A series of dance movements forming a unit in a choreographic pattern.
Idiom Definition:
1. A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, as in keep tabs on.
2. The specific grammatical, syntactic, and structural character of a given language.
3. Regional speech or dialect.
4.
a. A specialized vocabulary used by a group of people; jargon.
b. A style or manner of expression peculiar to a given people.
5. A style of artistic expression characteristic of a particular individual, school, period, or medium.
Source: thefreedictionary.com
By the way, one of my favorite word games is probably Isketch, where the game is to draw a word and others try to guess it!
