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english idioms



 
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ESL Forums | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Expression 'embarrassed of' on TV commercials | prepositional phrases...
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english idioms #1 (permalink) Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:56 am   english idioms
 

English idioms: What do these words mean?

"Face the music." means you prepare yourself for the punishment.

"An ace up one's sleeve." means one has a very important strategy or a trick to facilitate your victory.

"Tip of the iceberg." means it's only a basic or small part of a significant thing

"Icing on the cake." means a part of something is very satisfactory

"Chip on one's shoulder" means one has a problem with authority.

"a thorn in one's paw" means one has an antagonist pestering him/her.

"a pain in the butt." means a persistent annoyance.

"Hold your horses" means to be patient and to wait.

"Step on the gas" means to start the car or a vehicle.

"I'm all ears"- means I'm listening attentively.

"Something [name] ring any bells?"- means the mention of a word creates familiarity, refreshing one's memory.

"a penny for your thoughts."- is a greeting of some sort.

"Cat's got your tongue" means you are suddenly quiet or have clamped your mouth shut.

"Why the long face"- means why are you sad?

"Buy the farm" means you die, or you are dead. ("He bought the farm." means he's dead.")

"Rub it in one's nose."- means you are annoying someone by gloating about their bad luck.

"cool one`s heels"- one is forced to wait by someone in charge.

"have an eye for something"- means to be interested in it.

"wet behind the ears" means inexperienced, naive or new in one's position, occupation or place.

"turn a deaf ear to it" means- pretend not to hear it, not pay attention to it.

"bite off more than one can chew" means one gets a lot of more setbacks or failures than one wants to or can endure.

"cross one`s fingers" means cross two fingers of one hand to hope for good luck or to wish a lie would work.

"something under one`s nose" means it is very easily seen

"hit the books" means to start reading and doing homework.

"hit the road" means to go off or away.

"to have or to stick one's nose in others' business/affairs" means to have irritatingly unwelcome interest or impolite curiosity in others' affairs.

"with one's tail between one`s legs"- means feel beaten, ashamed

"smell a rat" means to be suspicious, to feel that something is wrong

"hit the jackpot" means to make a lot of money suddenly

"head over heels in love with someone" means be very much in love with someone

However I can hardly understand what this idiomatic expression "a gift's horse in one's mouth." mean.
Plmnjko
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Re: english idioms #2 (permalink) Tue Mar 29, 2011 9:33 am   Re: english idioms
 

Plmnjko wrote:
English idioms: What do these words mean?

If you're looking to know what they mean and how to use them in a sentence, I suggest you look them all up one by one, in this dictionary for instance: www.thefreedictionary.com
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hello ! #3 (permalink) Wed Mar 30, 2011 21:53 pm   hello !
 

Hello everyone,
I have never been to this types of forums before so please excuse me if I'm posting my query in a wrong one !
I wanted to know the meaning of "Can I play it on piano?".
I mean, is this a kind of idioms ?
because the person, who i had this conversation with, told me that by this he meant "Could he count on me, for anything in general" !
But, still I'm not very clear on this.
Please let know me .. how & where do we use this phrase, if it is one!
Thank u!
Pheonix16
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Joined: 30 Mar 2011
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