(English Idioms & Sayings) Idiom Quizzes - E
Showing posts with label E Idioms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label E Idioms. Show all posts
6/14/2008
E Idioms
(English Idioms & Sayings) E IDIOMS
each and every
- every
"I want each and every student to bring his or her textbook tomorrow."
eager beaver
- a person who is always eager to work hard or do extra work
My colleague is an eager beaver and is always ready to work hard when we need him.
eagle eye
- an eye with sharp visual powers
The woman watched her young child with an eagle eye.
an ear to the ground
- attention that is paid to the way things are going or the way people feel and think
The president has an ear to the ground and knows everything that is going on in our company.
earful
- a scolding, much talking in the form of complaints
The man gave his daughter an earful when she came home late.
early bird
- a person who gets up early or arrives early for something
My sister is an early bird and gets up very early every morning.
early bird catches the worm
- a person who gets up early in the morning has the best chance of success
Our supervisor always goes to work before his colleagues because he knows that the early bird catches the worm.
early on
- at an early stage
We had a meeting early on to try and solve the problem.
earn one's keep
- to earn one's pay or a place to live by doing some work
I work hard in my uncle's garden in order to earn my keep when I stay with him.
ease off/up on (someone or something)
- to put less pressure on someone or something, to relax
The president was asked to ease off on his efforts to cut staff in the company.
easier said than done
- to be easier to talk about than to do
I would like to change jobs but it is easier said than done.
easy come, easy go
- something that you get easily can be lost easily
My cousin does not care if he loses his job or not. For him everything is easy come, easy go.
easy does it
- doing something slowly or without sudden movements
"Easy does it," I said as we moved the large piano.
easy-going
- to be tolerant and relaxed
Our boss has a very easy-going management style.
easy to come by
- to be easy to find
Money is not easy to come by for many people with no education.
Posted by Learning English through English Idioms and Sayings
Labels: E Idioms, Z-A Idioms
6/13/2008
What is idioms
Dictionary: idiom
- A speech form or an expression of a given language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot be understood from the individual meanings of its elements, as in keep tabs on.
- The specific grammatical, syntactic, and structural character of a given language.
- Regional speech or dialect.
- A specialized vocabulary used by a group of people; jargon: legal idiom. A style or manner of expression peculiar to a given people: “Also important is the uneasiness I've always felt at cutting myself off from my idiom, the American habits of speech and jest and reaction, all of them entirely different from the local variety” (S.J. Perelman).
- A style of artistic expression characteristic of a particular individual, school, period, or medium: the idiom of the French impressionists; the punk rock idiom.
Literary Dictionary: idiom
A phrase or grammatical construction that cannot be translated literally into another language because its meaning is not equivalent to that of its component words. Common examples, of which there are thousands in English, include follow suit, hell for leather, flat broke, on the wagon, well hung, etc. By extension, the term is sometimes applied more loosely to any style or manner of writing that is characteristic of a particular group or movement.
Grammar Dictionary: idiom
A traditional way of saying something. Often an idiom, such as “under the weather,” does not seem to make sense if taken literally. Someone unfamiliar with English idioms would probably not understand that to be “under the weather” is to be sick.
Wikipedia: idiom
An idiom is an expression (i.e., term or phrase) whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use. In linguistics, idioms are widely assumed to be figures of speech that contradict the principle of compositionality; however, some debate has recently arisen on this subject.
A phrase or grammatical construction that cannot be translated literally into another language because its meaning is not equivalent to that of its component words. Common examples, of which there are thousands in English, include follow suit, hell for leather, flat broke, on the wagon, well hung, etc. By extension, the term is sometimes applied more loosely to any style or manner of writing that is characteristic of a particular group or movement.
Grammar Dictionary: idiom
A traditional way of saying something. Often an idiom, such as “under the weather,” does not seem to make sense if taken literally. Someone unfamiliar with English idioms would probably not understand that to be “under the weather” is to be sick.
Wikipedia: idiom
An idiom is an expression (i.e., term or phrase) whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through common use. In linguistics, idioms are widely assumed to be figures of speech that contradict the principle of compositionality; however, some debate has recently arisen on this subject.
Labels: E Idioms, Z-A Idioms
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