IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION

A hot potato
Speak of an issue (mostly current) which many people are talking
about and which is usually disputed
A penny for your thoughts
A way of asking what someone is thinking
Actions speak louder than words
People's intentions can be judged better by what they do than what
they say.
Add insult to injury
To further a loss with mockery or indignity; to worsen an
unfavorable situation.
At the drop of a hat
Meaning: without any hesitation; instantly.
Back to the drawing board
When an attempt fails and it's time to start all over.
Ball is in your court
It is up to you to make the next decision or step
Barking up the wrong tree
Looking in the wrong place. Accusing the wrong person
Be glad to see the back of
Be happy when a person leaves.
Beat around the bush
Avoiding the main topic. Not speaking directly about the issue.
 IDIOMATIC EXPRESSION
Best of both worlds
Meaning: All the advantages.

Best thing since sliced bread

A good invention or innovation. A good idea or plan.

Bite off more than you can chew

To take on a task that is way to big.

Blessing in disguise
Something good that isn't recognized at first.

Burn the midnight oil

To work late into the night, alluding to the time before electric lighting.

Can't judge a book by its cover

Cannot judge something primarily on appearance.

Caught between two stools

When someone finds it difficult to choose between two alternatives.

Costs an arm and a leg

This idiom is used when something is very expensive.

Cross that bridge when you come to it

Deal with a problem if and when it becomes necessary, not before.

Cry over spilt milk

When you complain about a loss from the past.
 ONOMATOPOEA

1. The sheep went, Baa.

2. The best part about music class is that you
can bang on the drum.
3. It is not unusual for a dog to bark when visitors
arrive.
4. Silence your cellphone so that it does not beep during
the movie.
5. Dad released a belch from the pit of his stomach.
6. The bridge collapsed creating a tremendous boom.
7. The large dog said, Bow-wow!
8. Are you afraid of things that go bump in the night?
9. My brother can burp the alphabet.
10. Both bees and buzzers buzz.
 ONOMATOPOEA
1. The cash register popped open with a heart
warming ca-ching.
2. The birds chirp filled the empty night air.
3. Her heels clacked on the hardwood floor.
4. The clanging pots and pans awoke the baby.
5. If you want the red team to win, clap your hands
right now!
6. The cadets swelled with pride when they heard
the clash of the cymbals at their graduation
ceremony.
7. The dishes fell to the floor with a clatter.
8. Nothing annoys me more than rapidly clicking your
pen.
9. The bride and groom were not surprised to hear the
familiar sound of clinkingglasses.
10. The horses hooves clip-clopped on the
cobblestones.
 ALLITERATION
1. Janie read a book by the babbling brook.
2. The child bounced the ball at
the backyard barbeque.
3. The barbarians broke through the barricade.
4. He acts silly at times, but he was blessed with
a brilliant brain.
5. The beautiful bouquet blossomed in the bright
sun.
6. When the canary keeled over, the coal miners left
the cave.
7. The captain couldnt keep the men in the cabin.
8. Erin cooked cupcakes in the kitchen.
9. My Cadillac was completely crushed in
a car crash.
10. The candy was killing my cavity.
 ALLITERATION
1. Despite their mothers warnings,
the children chose to chew with their mouths open.
2. The rich man was so cheap that it was chilling.
3. The crowd cheered when the champion hit
the challenger with a chair.
4. We sat around the campfire and chomped
on chunks of charred chicken.
5. Change the channel.
6. They would have been on time, if
they didnt dilly-dally.
7. He dunked the delicious donut in dairy creamer.
8. There is nothing but death in the desert during
the day.
9. I woke up at school in a slobbery pool; though I
used to be dry, now Im drowning in drool.
10. I dreamt of a drip-dropping drain in my dream.
 ASSONANCE
"If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . . fleeced."
(Al Swearengen in Deadwood, 2004)
"A heart no bigger than an orange seed has ceased to beat."
(James Salter, "Am Strande von Tanger." Collected Stories. Pan Macmillan,
2013)
"It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!"(advertising slogan for Hoover
vacuum cleaners, 1950s)
"Those images that yet
Fresh images beget,
That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea."(W.B. Yeats, "Byzantium")
"He was soon borne away by the waves, and lost in darkness and distance."
(Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818)
"He diagnosed Camilla's difficulty as indigestion, and locked himself in his
cabin."
(William Gaddis, The Recognitions. Harcourt Brace & Company, 1955)
"Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles
round and round the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds,
dragging their long tails amid the rattling canisters."
(James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916)

"The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs
drying in knots."
(Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm, 1977)
"Flash with a rash gimme my cash flickin' my ash
Runnin with my money, son, go out with a blast."(Busta Rhymes, "Gimme
Some More," 1998)
"The law may not change the heart, but it can restrain the
heartless."(Martin Luther King, Jr., address to the National Press Club on
July 19, 1962)
 ASSONANCE
"But at supper that evening when I asked him to pass the damn ham,
please, Uncle Jack pointed at me. 'See me afterwards, young lady,' he said."
(Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960)
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light. . . .
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."(Dylan Thomas, "Do not go gentle
into that good night")
"The setting sun was licking the hard bright machine like some great
invisible beast on its knees."
(John Hawkes, Death, Sleep, and the Traveler, 1974)
"I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless."(Thin Lizzy,
"With Love")
"I call her a ghastly girl because she was a ghastly girl. . . . A droopy, soupy,
sentimental exhibit, with melting eyes and a cooing voice and the most
extraordinary views on such things as stars and rabbits."
(P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters, 1938)
"In the over-mastering loneliness of that moment, his whole life seemed to
him nothing but vanity."
(Robert Penn Warren, Night Rider, 1939)
"A lanky, six-foot, pale boy with an active Adam's apple, ogling Lo and her
orange-brown bare midriff, which I kissed five minutes later, Jack."
(Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, 1955)

"Strips of tinfoil winking like people"(Sylvia Plath, "The Bee Meeting")

"The moon, like a flower
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight,
Sits and smiles on the night."
(William Blake, "Night." Songs of Innocence, 1789)
"Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles
round and round the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds,
dragging their long tails amid the rattling canisters."
(James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916)
 SIMILE
1. Food? Chris inquired, popping out of his seat like
a toaster strudel.
2. Grandpa lounged on the raft in the middle of the
pool like an old battleship.
3. If seen from above the factory, the workers would
have looked like clock parts.
4. The truth was like a bad taste on his tongue.
5. The people who still lived in the town were stuck in
place like wax statues.
6. Cassie talked to her son about girls as though she
were giving him tax advice.
7. Alans jokes were like flat soda to the children,
surprisingly unpleasant.
8. My mothers kitchen was like a holy place: you
couldnt wear your shoes, you had to sit there at a
certain time, and occasionally wed pray.
9. The bottle rolled off the table like a teardrop.
10. The handshake felt like warm laundry.
 SIMILE

1.She hung her head like a dying flower.

2.Arguing with her was like dueling with hand
grenades.
3.The classroom was as quiet as a tongue-tied
librarian in a hybrid car.
4.Janies boyfriend appreciated her as an ape
might appreciate an algebra book.
5.The clouds were like ice-cream castles in the
sky.
6.The shingles on the shack shook in the storm
winds like scared children.
7.When he reached the top of the hill, he felt as
strong as a steel gate.
8.When the tree branch broke, Millie fell from the
limb like a robins egg.
9.She swam through the waters like she was
falling through a warm dream.
10. They children ran like ripples through
water.
 METAPHOR
1.The detective listened to her tales with a
wooden face.
2.She was fairly certain that life was a fashion
show.
3.The typical teenage boys room is a disaster
area.
4.What storms then shook the ocean of my
sleep.
5.The children were roses grown in concrete
gardens, beautiful and forlorn.
6.Kisses are the flowers of love in bloom.
7.His cotton candy words did not appeal to her
taste.
8.Kathy arrived at the grocery store with an
army of children.
9.Her eyes were fireflies.
10. He wanted to set sail on the ocean of love
but he just wasted away in the desert.
 METAPHOR
1.I was lost in a sea of nameless faces.
2.Johns answer to the problem was just a Band-
Aid, not a solution.
3.The cast on Michaels broken leg was a plaster
shackle.
4.Cameron always had a taste for the fruit of
knowledge.
5.The promise between us was a delicate flower.
6.Hes a rolling stone, and its bred in the bone.
7.He pleaded for her forgiveness but Janets
heart was cold iron.
8.She was just a trophy to Ricardo, another
object to possess.
9.The path of resentment is easier to travel than
the road to forgiveness.
10. Katies plan to get into college was a house
of cards on a crooked table.
 HYPERBOLE
1.Charlie gazed hopelessly at the endless pile of
bills stretching across the counter.
2.That woman has no self-control.
3.That was the easiest question in the world.
4.Nothing can bother him.
5.I can smell pizza from a mile away.
6.I went home and made the biggest sandwich of
all time.
7.My dad is always working.
8.Patty drank from a bottomless glass of Kool-
Aid.
9.Allie has a million pairs of shoes in her closet.
10. Old Mr. Johnson has been teaching here
since the Stone Age.
 HYPERBOLE
1.Forget knocking it out of the park, Frank can
knock a baseball off the continent.
2.The lesson was taking forever.
3.Ive seen this movie at least 80,000 times.
4.Vanessa never has anything interesting to say.
5.These shoes are killing me.
6.Shauna does everything for him.
7.Christmas will never come.
8.He walked down the road to nowhere.
9.Id rather French kiss a rattlesnake than miss a
gym period.
10. My dad knows everything about cars.
 PERSONIFICATION
1.These casinos are always hungry enough to eat
your dinner.
2.He sang a lonely song to the moonlight.
3.The candle flame danced in the dark.
4.Thunder grumbled and raindrops reported for
duty.
5.The moon turned over to face the day.
6.As fall turned to winter, the trees found
themselves wearing white.
7.The brown grass was begging for water.
8.Our society needs strong leaders.
9.One unhappy icicle wasted away in the day.
10. The sunflowers nodded in the wind.
 PERSONIFICATION

1. Justice is blind and, at times, deaf.

2. Money is the only friend that I can count
on.
3. The cactus saluted any visitor brave
enough to travel the scorched land.
4. Jan ate the hotdog despite the
arguments it posed to her digestive
system.
5. The world does not care to hear your sad
stories.
6. After freedoms sweet kiss, she could
never return to the doldrums of the
factory.
7. Peggy heard the last piece of cheesecake
in the refrigerator calling her name.
8. The sorry engine wheezed its death
cough.
9. Drugs dragged him into this place and
they wouldnt let him leave alive.
10. The buses can be impatient around here.
 IRONY
1. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the audience/reader
knows that Juliet has faked her death, but Romeo does not
and he thinks she is really dead. (dramatic irony)
2. In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the main
character Scout goes to school and is already able to read.
While one would expect a teacher to be pleased about
that, Scout's teacher does not like that she is already able
to read. (situational irony)
3. In Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy says
of Elizabeth Bennett that she is not "handsome enough to
tempt me," but he falls in love with her in spite of
himself. (verbal irony)
4. The audience knows that a killer is hiding in the closet,
but the girl in the horror movie does not.
5. The reader knows that a storm is coming, but the
children playing on the playground do not.
6. There are roaches infesting the office of a pest control
service.
7. A plumber spends all day working on leaky faucets and
comes home to find a pipe has burst in his home.
8. In Julius Caesar when Mark Antony states Yet Brutus
says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man
9. Dimmesdale's confession and discussion of his
congregation in the Scarlet Letter that is meant to mean
he's terrible and should be shunned but the people did the
opposite
10. As sunny as day in winter in Alaska

IRONY
1. In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the audience/reader
knows that Juliet has faked her death, but Romeo does not
and he thinks she is really dead. (dramatic irony)
2. In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the main
character Scout goes to school and is already able to read.
While one would expect a teacher to be pleased about
that, Scout's teacher does not like that she is already able
to read. (situational irony)
3. In Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy says
of Elizabeth Bennett that she is not "handsome enough to
tempt me," but he falls in love with her in spite of
himself. (verbal irony)
4. The audience knows that a killer is hiding in the closet,
but the girl in the horror movie does not.
5. The reader knows that a storm is coming, but the
children playing on the playground do not.
6. There are roaches infesting the office of a pest control
service.
7. A plumber spends all day working on leaky faucets and
comes home to find a pipe has burst in his home.
8. Her presence was enjoyed as much as having a team
full of raucous foul mouthed people joining our table.
9. I enjoyed the movie as much as getting a root canal.
10. I'd like to visit that museum again as much as I'd
like to gnaw off my own foot.