20 ENGLISH

IDIOMS WITH

SURPRISING

ORIGINS

20 ENGLISH

IDIOMS WITH

SURPRISING

ORIGINS

An idiom is a figure of speech that hasbecome fixed in a language. Usually, an

idiom is figurative in modern contextsbut once had a literal meaning. Theseliteral meanings, or idiom origins, canhelp a learner of English understand

where a phrase originated.

What is anIdiom?

Straight from the horse’s mouth1. Meaning: getting information directly from the most reliable source

Origin: This one is said to come from the 1900s, when buyers coulddetermine a horse’s age by examining its teeth. It’s also why you shouldn’t“look a gift horse in the mouth,” as inspecting a gift is considered badetiquette.

Let the catout of the bag2.

Meaning: to mistakenlyreveal a secret

Origin: Up to and includingin the 1700s, a common

street fraud includedreplacing valuable pigs with

less valuable cats andselling them in bags. Whena cat was let out of a bag,

the jig was up.

Buttersomeone up

3.

Meaning: to praise orflatter someone, usually

to gain a favor

Origin: A customaryreligious act in ancient

India includedthrowing butter balls atthe statues of gods toseek good fortune and

their favor.

Pulling someone’s legMeaning: teasing someone, usually by lying in a joking manner

Origin: Although pulling someone’s leg is all in good fun nowadays,it originally described the way in which thieves tripped their victims

to rob them.

4.

Wolf in sheep’sclothing

5.

Meaning: someone who ispretending to be something theyare not, usually to the detriment

of others

Origin: This one’s attributed tothe Bible (Matthew 7:15). TheBible also gave us “rise and

shine” (Isaiah 60:1), “seeing eye toeye” (Isaiah 62:8), and “broken

heart” (Psalm 69:20).

Hands down6.

Meaning: without a lot ofeffort; by far

Origin: Winning “handsdown” once referred to

19th-century horseracing,when a jockey could

remove his hands fromthe reins and still win therace because he was so

far ahead.

Riding shotgun

7.

7.

Meaning: riding in thefront seat of a vehicle next

to the driver

Origin: In the Wild West,the person who sat next to

the driver was oftenequipped with a shotgun

to kill any robbers thatmight happen upon the

coach.

8. Barking up the wrong treeMeaning: pursuing a misguided course of action

Origin: Likely referring to hunting, this saying explains when adog would literally bark at the bottom of the wrong tree afterthe prey in question moved to the next branch.

Flying off thehandle

Meaning: suddenly becomingenraged

Origin: This one is said to comefrom poorly made axes of the 1800sthat would literally detach from the

handle. Yikes!

9.

Cost an arm anda leg

10.

Meaning: extremelyexpensive

Origin: The story goes that thisphrase originated from 18th-century paintings, as famous

people like GeorgeWashington would have theirportraits done without certainlimbs showing. Having limbsshowing is said to have cost

more.

Sleep tight11.Meaning: used to tell someone to sleep well

Origin: One possible origin of this phrase dates back to whenmattresses were supported by ropes; sleeping tight meant sleepingwith the ropes pulled tight, which would provide a well-sprung bed.

Bite the bullet12.

Meaning: to perform a painfultask or endure an unpleasant

situation

Origin: In the 1800s, patientswould literally bite on a bullet to

cope with the pain of havingsurgery before anesthesia was

common.

Meaning: look for avoidable errors so you don’t remove something goodwith the badOrigin: This idiom allegedly comes from a time when the householdbathed in the same water; first, the lord would bathe, then the men, thelady, the women, the children, and the babies last. The bath water is saidto have been so dirty that there was a risk of throwing the baby out withthe water once everyone was done bathing!

13.Don’t throw the baby out with thebath waterDon’t throw the baby out with thebath water

Meaning: the moment when aform of entertainment reaches a

decline in quality by includinggimmicks to maintain interest

Jump the shark14.

Origin: In the show Happy Days,the character Fonzie literally

jumps over a shark while waterskiing; afterward, radio personalityJon Hein popularized the phrase“jump the shark” to describe the

decline of the show.

Minding yourPs and Qs

15.

Meaning: being on yourbest behavior

Origin: There are manyorigin stories for this one,

but perhaps the one that ismost fun is that bartenders

would keep track of thepints and quarts consumed

by their patrons with theletters “P” and “Q.”

Turn a blindeye

16.

Meaning: to consciouslyignore unwanted information

Origin: The phrase “to turn ablind eye” is said to originatewith Admiral Horatio Nelson,who allegedly looked throughhis telescope using his blindeye to avoid signals from hissuperior telling him towithdraw from battle.

Armed to theteeth

17.

Meaning: to be extremelywell equipped

Origin: The idea behindbeing “armed to the teeth”is that the weapon wielderwould carry the maximum

number of weapons, somany that he or she would

be forced to carry somebetween his or her teeth.

Get one’s goat

Meaning: to irritate or annoysomeone

Origin: This one also comesfrom horseracing. Jockeysplaced goats in the stableswith their horses as this was

said to relax the horses.However, competitors would

remove the goats of their rivalsto spook their competitors’horses, hoping they would

consequently lose the race.

18.

Pull out all the stopsMeaning: to do everything you can to make something successful

Origin: Alluding to the piano-like instrument the organ, this phraserefers to when the stops are pulled out to turn on all the sounds inan organ, allowing it to play all the sounds at once and, therefore,be as loud as possible.

19.

Dish fit forthe gods

20.

Meaning: a very scrumptiousor delectable meal

Origin: We can thankShakespeare for thisexpression (found in "JuliusCaesar"), but we can also thankhim for “foaming at the mouth”("Julius Caesar"), “hot blooded”("The Merry Wives ofWindsor"), “wearing your hearton your sleeve” ("Othello"), and“one fell swoop” ("Macbeth").

Thank You!Do you know of any

idioms in otherlanguages that you

think are interesting orfunny? Share them with

us on Facebook orTwitter!

Slide 1 – Gdakaska/Pixabay.com, Lohrelei/Pixabay.com, Clker-Free-Vector-Images/Pixabay.com, OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay.comSlide 2- Gdakaska/Pixabay.com, Lohrelei/Pixabay.com, Clker-Free-Vector-Images/Pixabay.com, OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay.comSlide 3- Bara Cross/Stocksnap.ioSlide 4 –Vadim B/Pexels.comSlide 5- jackmac34/Pixabay.comSlide 6- Alex wong/Unsplash.comSlide 7- Ross Sokolovski/Unsplash.comSlide 8- bertil11/Pixabay.comSlide 9- Sean DuBois/Unsplash.comSlide 10- Micah. H/Unsplash.comSlide 11- Dan Edwards/Unsplash.comSlide 12- Peggy_Marco/Pixabay.comSlide 13- pranav digwal/Pexels.comSlide 14- stevepb/Pixabay.comSlide 15- PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay.comSlide 16- Fgyongyver/Pixabay.comSlide 17- Martin Vorel/Stocksnap.ioSlide 18 –JOHN TOWNER/Unsplash.comSlide 19- Mikael Kristenson/Unsplash.comSlide 20- Michael Kahl/ Unsplash.comSlide 21- https://stock.tookapic.com/photos/36136/Pexels.comSlide 22- Tae In Kim/Unsplash.comSlide 23 –Gdakaska/Pixabay.com, Lohrelei/Pixabay.com, Clker-Free-Vector-Images/Pixabay.com, OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay.comSlide 24- Gdakaska/Pixabay.com, Lohrelei/Pixabay.com, Clker-Free-Vector-Images/Pixabay.com, OpenClipart-Vectors/Pixabay.com

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