Никоненко Тамара Петрівна

The following expressions are idioms that use part of the body.

The actual meaning is noted in parentheses.

1) Stay on your toes.  (Remain alert)

2) You are pulling my leg.  (You are not telling me the truth.)

3) Break a leg. (Good luck.)

4) That is hard to swallow. (That is not easy to believe.)

5) Over my dead body. (You will resist or oppose something strongly.)

6) To have a one-track mind. (To be constantly focused on a single issue.)

7) To run at the mouth. (To talk excessively but say little of importance.)

8) To save face. (To avoid being embarrassed.)

9) Costs an arm and a leg. (Price of an item is very expensive.)

10) A knee-jerk reaction. (A response given without thinking.)

11) An Achilles’ heel. (One’s vulnerable or weak point.)

12) Tight-lipped. (Unwilling to speak about a particular issue.)

13) To have eyes in the back of one’s head. (To be aware of things happening around you.)

14) Head-strong. (Doing exactly what you want to do no matter what others think.)

15) High-brow. (Very intellectual or dealing with highly cultured issues.)

16) Thumb one’s nose.  (To show disrespect or indifference to someone or something.)

17) A slap in the face. (An insult.)

18) Turn one’s stomach, or Sick to your stomach.  (Make one very upset.)

19) Gut-reaction.  (An intuitive feeling.)

20) Slap on the wrist.  (A very minor and too easy punishment.)

21) Nose in the air.  (Very self-important.)

22) Hair-raising incident.  (Something very scary.)

23) Keep an ear close to the ground. (Paying careful attention to upcoming events.)

24) Spineless. (Cowardly.)

25) Nosey. (Very curious about others’ private business.)

26) Playing footsie.  (To cooperate with someone, usually in a secretive way.)

27) In one ear; out the other. (To not pay attention to what is being said to you.)

28) Eat one’s words. (To have to admit you were wrong.)

29) To have no teeth. (To be weak or ineffective.)

30) To be of two minds. (To have two different and possibly conflicting views on an issue.)

31) To finger someone. (To place the blame on somebody.)

32) Arm’s length distance. (Avoiding close association or contact.)

33) Out of your mind. (Not thinking rationally.)

34) Heart-sick. (Very sad or upset.)

35) Mindless or Brainless.  (Thoughtless.)

36) Put one’s best foot forward. (To be on one’s best behavior to make a good impression.)

37) Stick your neck out. (To take a risk.)

38) Lily-livered. (Afraid or cowardly.)

39) Footloose. (Having no personal obligations; possibly lacking specific plans for the future.)

40) To run at the mouth. (To talk incessantly and say little of substance.)

The following are miscellaneous idioms that are commonly used by American speakers. 

The actual meaning is noted in parentheses.

1) To be sent up the river. (Sentenced to jail.)

2) To be sold down the river. (Betrayed – probably by friends.)

3) To be railroaded. (To be quickly forced into something you may disagree with)

4) Hit the sack.  (Go to bed.)

5) Down in the dumps. (To feel very depressed or unhappy.)

6) Under the weather. (To feel ill.)

7) To take with a grain of salt. (To not fully believe something.)

8) Once in a blue moon. (An infrequent occurrence.)

9) To walk on thin ice.  (To risk saying something that might be offensive to others.)

10) To swim upstream. (To go against the views and opinions of most people.)

11) Salt of the Earth. (A very good-hearted person.)