{"id":1620,"date":"2016-06-04T21:45:57","date_gmt":"2016-06-04T21:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2016-06-04T22:13:33","modified_gmt":"2016-06-04T22:13:33","slug":"content-writing-idioms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/content-writing-idioms\/","title":{"rendered":"Content Writers: Add Flair To Your Writing With These 60 Idioms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you an eager beaver<\/span>? She just wrote a Dear John Letter<\/span>! Mom’s going to have a cow<\/span> when she sees the mess. So, who wears the pants<\/span> in your family? You were a wet blanket<\/span> at that party. Don’t upset the applecart<\/span>. They jawboned<\/span> me into signing the contract. I was \u00a0ill at ease<\/span> before the cameras. The truth was shocking; he was in cahoots with<\/span> the crooks. Don’t let your plants go to pot<\/span>? He’s a chain smoker and it’s going to be very difficult for him to kick the habit<\/span>? The villagers were taken in by his larger than life<\/span> personality. Don’t be late or else you’re going to miss out on<\/span> all the fun at the party.<\/p>\n

The underlined sentences are idioms. Wikipedia defines idioms as<\/p>\n

An idiom (Latin: idioma, “special property”, from Greek: ?????? \u2013 id\u00ed?ma, “special feature, special phrasing, a peculiarity”, f. Greek: ????? \u2013 \u00eddios, “one\u2019s own”) is a phrase or a fixed expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. An idiom’s figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.There are thousands of idioms, and they occur frequently in all languages. It is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, can’t cover 25,000 idioms in a post! Over here I will be covering 60 popular idioms that writers must know by heart. Happy reading!<\/p>\n

A<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

1)\u00a0Accident waiting to happen \u2013 A situation or a thing that will lead to disaster<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0All ears \u2013 To listen carefully<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0Ahead of time – In advance<\/p>\n

4)\u00a0All the rage \u2013 Very popular in the recent times, current fad<\/p>\n

5)\u00a0All that glitters is not gold \u2013 Something that may appear precious at the surface but when looked closely is of no value<\/p>\n

6)\u00a0At the eleventh hour \u2013 At the last moment<\/p>\n

7) All roads lead to Rome – Different methods producing the same result<\/p>\n

8) All sizzle and no steak – Something that’s a promising start but ends on a disappointing note<\/p>\n

9) All show and no go – Looks good but very low on performance quotient<\/p>\n

9)\u00a0Add insult to injury \u2013 To make a bad situation worse<\/p>\n

10)\u00a0Add fuel to the fire\/flame \u2013 To worsen the situation<\/p>\n

11)\u00a0Against the grain \u2013 To go against one’s feelings<\/p>\n

12)\u00a0All thumbs \u2013 Extremely clumsy<\/p>\n

13)\u00a0Artsy-fartsy \u2013 Pretentious<\/p>\n

14)\u00a0Avoid something like the plague – Stay away from something\/someone<\/p>\n

15) Ahead of the curve – Better than the others, leading in a situation<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 B<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

1) Babe in the woods – Innocent person<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0Bail someone out \u2013 To help someone come out of a difficult situation<\/p>\n

3) Bad blood – Hostile feelings<\/p>\n

4) Bag of tricks – A collection of techniques to overcome a bad situation<\/p>\n

5) Bait and switch – Deceptive advertising<\/p>\n

6) Ball is in your court – You have to do something about the situation<\/p>\n

7) Bear fruit – Be successful<\/p>\n

8) Beat around the bush – Speaking indirectly<\/p>\n

9) Beaten path – The conventional way<\/p>\n

10) Beauty is only skin-deep – Outside looks aren’t important<\/p>\n

11) (A) Bed of roses – Easy situation<\/p>\n

12) Beef up – To make something effective ; strengthen up something<\/p>\n

13) Behind the times – Old fashioned<\/p>\n

14) Bells and whistles – Attractive additional features<\/p>\n

15)\u00a0[A] bird in the hand is worth two in the bush – If you’ve something valuable then it’s better to be content with it rather than losing it to get something that you think might be better.<\/p>\n

C<\/h2>\n

1) Call the shots – Make decisions<\/p>\n

2) Call a spade a spade – Giving brutally honest feedback<\/p>\n

3) Cake walk – An easy thing<\/p>\n

4) Call it a day – The day’s work is complete<\/p>\n

5) Call it quits – To quit<\/p>\n

6) Carry a lot of weight – Important<\/p>\n

7) Cash it on – To take advantage of<\/p>\n

8) Carry a torch for someone – To have a crush on someone<\/p>\n

9) Castles in the air – Big dreams<\/p>\n

10) Catch one’s eye – Attract someone’s attention<\/p>\n

11) Climb on the bandwagon – Join others in supporting a cause<\/p>\n

12) Cold feet – To lose confidence; being nervous about a situation<\/p>\n

13)\u00a0Come hell or high water – No matter what happens<\/p>\n

14) Cream of the crop – The best of all<\/p>\n

15) Cut some slack – Be lenient<\/p>\n

D<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

1) Dash something off – To jot down a quick note.<\/p>\n

2) Dead set against – To oppose something<\/p>\n

3) Dear John Letter – A woman writing a break up letter<\/p>\n

4) Devil may care attitude – Carefree attitude<\/p>\n

5) Do someone\u2019s heart good – To make someone feel good emotionally<\/p>\n

6) Dirt cheap – Very cheap<\/p>\n

7) Don\u2019t put the cart before the horse – Arrange things in proper order<\/p>\n

8) Dog-eat-dog – It’s a situation where people can do anything to succeed, even it means harming others<\/p>\n

9) Damsel in distress – A woman who needs rescuing from a troublesome situation<\/p>\n

10) Deep six – To discard<\/p>\n

11) [A] Dead ringer – Look-alike<\/p>\n

12) Dead Set Against – Completely opposed to something<\/p>\n

13)Doesn\u2019t hold candle to – Inferior, not as good as someone.<\/p>\n

14) Do the trick – Achieving what you want<\/p>\n

15) Dressed to the nines – Decked up with expensive clothes.<\/p>\n

Will be covering the next alphabets & idioms very soon. BTW you might like to flip through a list of 100 confusing words<\/a> that can ruin your content.<\/p>\n

Want to add something more to this list? You can drop in your comments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you an eager beaver? She just wrote a Dear John Letter! Mom’s going to have a cow when she sees the mess. So, who wears the pants in your family? You were a wet blanket at that party. Don’t upset the applecart. They jawboned me into signing the contract. I was \u00a0ill at ease before the cameras. The truth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-writing","category-english-dos-and-donts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1647,"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions\/1647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meabhi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}