IDIOMS WITH ANIMALS

Idioms with bat

- do sth off your own bat: UK to do something without anyone else telling you or asking you to do it: I didn't ask her to buy them a present - she did it off her own bat.

- have bats in the belfry: to be silly and slightly crazy and behave in a confused way.

- off the bat: US immediately. E.g.: You can't expect to be accepted in a new town right/straight off the bat.

- not bat an eyelid: to show no sign of surprise or worry when something unexpected happens. E.g.: She told him she'd spent all her savings but he didn't bat an eyelid.

- (as) blind as a bat: unable to see well. E.g.: I'm as blind as a bat without my glasses.

 

Idioms with beaver

- eager beaver: a person who is willing to work very hard.

- beaver away: (phrasal verb) to work hard for a long time. E.g.: She has been beavering away at that essay for hours.

 

Idioms with bee

- be (as) busy as a bee: to be moving about quickly doing many things.

- be the bee's knees: UK to be excellent or of an extremely high standard. E.g.: Have you tried this ice cream? It's the bee's knees, it really is.

- have a bee in your bonnet:  to keep talking about something again and again because you think it is very important. E.g.: She never stops talking about dieting - she's got a real bee in her bonnet about it.

 

Idioms with bull

- like a bull in a china shop: If someone is like a bull in a china shop, they are very careless in the way that they move or behave. E.g.: We told her it was a delicate situation but she went into the meeting like a bull in a china shop.

- take the bull by the horns: to do something difficult in a brave and determined way. E.g.: Why don't you take the bull by the horns and tell him to leave?

- be like a red rag to a bull: (mainly UK) to be certain to produce an angry or violent reaction. E.g.: Don't tell him you're a vegetarian - it's like a red rag to a bull.

 

 

Idioms with cat

- fat cat: someone who has a lot of money, especially someone in charge of a company who has the power to increase their own pay. E.g.: The report criticized boardroom fat cats who award themselves huge pay increases.fat cat bosses/directors.

- be the cat's whiskers: (UK old-fashioned) to be better than everyone else.

- fight like cat and dog: to argue violently all the time. E.g.: As kids we used to fight like cat and dog.

- has the cat got your tongue?: something you say to someone when you are annoyed because they will not speak. E.g.: What's the matter? Has the cat got your tongue?

- let the cat out of the bag: to allow a secret to be known, usually without intending to. E.g.: I was trying to keep the party a secret, but Mel went and let the cat out of the bag.

- like a cat on a hot tin roof: (UK old-fashioned like a cat on hot bricks) describes someone who is in a state of extreme nervous worry.

- look like something the cat brought/dragged in: to look very untidy and dirty.

- not have a cat in hell's chance: (mainly US not have a snowball's chance in hell). E.g.: to be completely unable to achieve something:They haven't a cat in hell's chance of getting over the mountain in weather like this.

- play cat and mouse: to try to defeat someone by tricking them into making a mistake so that you have an advantage over them. E.g.: The 32-year-old singer spent a large proportion of the week playing cat and mouse with the press.

- put/set the cat among the pigeons: (UK) to say or do something that causes trouble or makes a lot of people very angry.

- while the cat's away, the mice will play: said when the person who is in charge of a place is not there, and the people there behave badly.

- curiosity killed the cat: said to warn someone not to ask too many questions about something.

- no/not enough room to swing a cat: said about a place or space that is very small.

 

Idioms with chicken

- chicken out: (slang disapproving — phrasal verb with chicken) to decide not to do something because you are too frightened: I was going to go bungee jumping, but I chickened out.

- a chicken and egg situation: a situation in which it is impossible to say which of two things existed first and which caused the other one

- play chicken: to play dangerous games in order to discover who is the bravest.

- spring chicken: be no spring chicken = to be no longer young.

- run round like a headless chicken: to be very busy doing a lot of things, but in a way that is not very effective.

 

 

Idiom with crocodile

- crocodile tears: tears that you cry when you are not really sad or sorry.

 

Idioms with fish

- be like a fish out of water: to feel awkward because you are in a situation that you have not experienced before or because you are very different from the people around you

- be neither fish nor fowl: like one thing in some ways and like another thing in other ways.

- have bigger/other fish to fry: to have something more important to do.

- there are plenty more fish in the sea: used to tell someone whose relationship has ended that there are many other people that they could have a relationship with. E.g.: Don't cry over Pierre - there are plenty more fish in the sea!

- a fishing expedition: an attempt to discover the facts about something by collecting a lot of information, often secretly. E.g.: The investigators' request for the company's accounts is simply a fishing expedition - they have no real evidence of wrongdoing.

- fish in troubled waters: (UK) to try to win an advantage from a difficult situation or from someone else's problems.

- fish or cut bait: (US) used to tell someone to take action or to stop saying that they will. E.g.: He's been promising voters that he'll support gun control, now it's time to fish or cut bait.

 

Idiom with fly

- fly on the wall: If you say that you would like to be a fly on the wall on an occasion, you mean that you would like to hear what will be said or see what will happen while not being noticed. E.g.: I'd love to be a fly on the wall when those two get home!

 

Idioms with horse

- (straight) from the horse's mouth: If you hear something (straight) from the horse's mouth, you hear it from the person who has direct personal knowledge of it.

- horses for courses: UK used for saying that it is important to choose suitable people for particular activities because everyone has different skills.

- you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink: said to emphasize that you can make it easy for someone to do something, but you cannot force them to do it.

- horse around/about: (phrasal verb) to behave in a silly and noisy way. E.g.: He was horsing around in the kitchen and broke my favourite bow

- eat like a horse: to always eat a lot of food. E.g.: She's so thin yet she eats like a horse.

- flog a dead horse: UK to waste effort on something when there is no chance of succeeding. E.g.: He keeps trying to get it published but I think he's flogging a dead horse.

- back the wrong horse: to make the wrong decision and support a person or action that is later unsuccessful. E.g.: In all his years as a book publisher, he rarely backed the wrong horse.

- get on your high horse: to start talking angrily about something bad that someone else has done as if you feel you are better or more clever than they are.

- hold your horses: used to tell someone to stop and consider carefully their decision or opinion about something. E.g.: Just hold your horses, Bill! Let's think about this for a moment.

- put the cart before the horse: to do things in the wrong order. E.g.: Aren't you putting the cart before the horse by deciding what to wear for the wedding before you've even been invited to it?

- (I'm so hungry), I could eat a horse: used to say that you are extremely hungry.

- come/get (down) off your high horse: to stop talking as if you were better or more clever than other people. E.g.: It's time you came down off your high horse and admitted you were wrong.

- never look a gift horse in the mouth: said to advise someone not to refuse something good that is being offered.

- shut/close the stable/barn door after the horse has bolted: to be so late in taking action to prevent something bad happening that the bad event has already happened. 

 

Idioms with rat

- the rat race: a way of life in modern society, in which people compete with each other for power and money. E.g.: He decided to get out of the rat race, and went to work on a farm.

- rat on sb/sth: (phrasal verb) to be not loyal to someone, especially by giving away secret information about them, or to fail to do something that you said you would do. E.g.: He ratted on us. They ratted on the deal.

- a pack rat: US someone who collects things that they do not need. E.g.: For me there could be nothing worse than living with a pack rat.

- smell a rat: to recognize that something is not as it appears to be or that something dishonest is happening. E.g.: He's been working late with her every night this week - I smell a rat!

- look like a drowned rat: to be very wet, especially because you have been in heavy rain.

 

Idiom with snail

- at a snail's pace: extremely slowly: The roads were full of traffic and we were travelling at a snail's pace for two hours.

 

Idioms with wolf

- keep the wolf from the door: to have just enough money to be able to eat and live: As a student, he took an evening job to keep the wolf from the door.

- a wolf in sheep's clothing: a person who hides the fact that they are evil, with a pleasant and friendly appearance.

- cry wolf: to ask for help when you do not need it: If you cry wolf too often, people will stop believing you.

 

Reference:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org (Definitions from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

                                      Edited by teacher Marcelo Maciel de Almeida