Idioms

ENGLISH IDIOMS

English idioms, proverbs, and expressions are an important part of everyday English. They come up all the time in both written and spoken English. Because idioms don't always make sense literally, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the meaning and usage of each idiom. That may seem like a lot of work, but learning idioms is fun, especially when you compare English idioms to the idioms in your own language.

Learning to use common idioms and expressions will make your English sound more native, so it's a good idea to master some of these expressions. The tables below are organized by how common the idioms are in American English. You can start by learning the very common English idioms, since these are the ones you'll encounter regularly watching American movies or TV, or visiting the United States. When you've mastered those, move on to rest. None of the idioms on this page are unusual or old fashioned, so you can be confident using any of them with native English speakers from all English-speaking countries.

THE MOST COMMON ENGLISH IDIOMS

These English idioms are extremely common in everyday conversation in the United States. You will hear them in movies and TV shows and can use them to make your English sound more like that of a native speaker. 

Idiom	Meaning	Usage
A blessing in disguise	a good thing that seemed bad at first	as part of a sentence
A dime a dozen	Something common	as part of a sentence
Beat around the bush	Avoid saying what you mean, usually because it is uncomfortable	as part of a sentence
Better late than never	Better to arrive late than not to come at all	by itself
Bite the bullet	To get something over with because it is inevitable	as part of a sentence
Break a leg	Good luck	by itself
Call it a day	Stop working on something	as part of a sentence
Cut somebody some slack	Don't be so critical	as part of a sentence
Cutting corners	Doing something poorly in order to save time or money	as part of a sentence
Easy does it	Slow down	by itself
Get out of hand	Get out of control	as part of a sentence
Get something out of your system	Do the thing you've been wanting to do so you can move on	as part of a sentence
Get your act together	Work better or leave	by itself
Give someone the benefit of the doubt	Trust what someone says	as part of a sentence
Go back to the drawing board	Start over	as part of a sentence
Hang in there	Don't give up	by itself
Hit the sack	Go to sleep	as part of a sentence
It's not rocket science	It's not complicated	by itself
Let someone off the hook	To not hold someone responsible for something	as part of a sentence
Make a long story short	Tell something briefly	as part of a sentence
Miss the boat	It's too late	as part of a sentence
No pain, no gain	You have to work for what you want	by itself
On the ball	Doing a good job	as part of a sentence
Pull someone's leg	To joke with someone	as part of a sentence
Pull yourself together	Calm down	by itself
So far so good	Things are going well so far	by itself
Speak of the devil	The person we were just talking about showed up!	by itself
That's the last straw	My patience has run out	by itself
The best of both worlds	An ideal situation	as part of a sentence
Time flies when you're having fun	You don't notice how long something lasts when it's fun	by itself
To get bent out of shape	To get upset	as part of a sentence
To make matters worse	Make a problem worse	as part of a sentence
Under the weather	Sick	as part of a sentence
We'll cross that bridge when we come to it	Let's not talk about that problem right now	by itself
Wrap your head around something	Understand something complicated	as part of a sentence
You can say that again	That's true, I agree	by itself
Your guess is as good as mine	I have no idea	by itself