English Idioms, American & British Idiomatic Expressions

An idiom is a phrase understood by many people in a specific culture or subculture, and that phrase has a different meaning from the meaning it appears to have.

A very good example of this is "to bend over backwards." This phrase is understood in English speaking culture to mean "to work very hard to do / get something." The meaning it appears to have (the literal meaning), however, is the physical act of bending over in the opposite direction. Very few people can actually do this physical act.

Idioms are used in both spoken and written English, and often appear in newspaper articles.

Idioms with the same meanings and use in your own language may use a different word than the English idiom. Do not try to change any word / vocabulary in an English idiom! Also be careful when you use idioms in your writing exercises. They can be very effective if used carefully and sparingly, but the writing becomes very unnatural if too many idioms are used in one paragraph or essay.

Definitions and Examples (We have made lists of some very popular idioms for you. See below.)

Choose a group of idioms below, to see definitions and examples for idioms in this collection. (For example, choose "Animal" for all animal idioms)

Animal--Business--Colour--Food--Money

We recommend the following English Idioms Books for further study or the ESL schools below.

English	Location
English Village Homestay	East Sussex, England, UK & England
Kickstart School, The Hague	The Hague, Netherlands
Intensive American English Institute, Austin TX	Austin, Texas, USA
NSL Mondial, Ottawa	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
ABC Languages, New York	New York City, New York, USA
American Language Programs, Inc.	Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA
International TEFL Training Institute, Paris	Paris, France
Future Focus School Of English	Floriana, Malta
New York Language Center	Queens, New York, USA
The International Language Centre	Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago
Crossing Borders - Katy TX (Houston area)	Houston, Texas, USA
Kaplan International Colleges UK	London, England, UK & England
Test Your English Level Online	London, England, UK & England
Institute Of Intensive English, Hawaii	Waikiki, Hawaii, USA
Harvest English Institute, Newark & Long Branch	Newark, New Jersey, USA
The Language Academy, Fort Lauderdale	Broward County, Florida, USA
Rose Mount's Institute of English Language, Dehradun	Dehradun, India
ILSC - San Francisco	Bay Area, San Francisco, California, USA
Focus Education Centre of Canada	Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
F+U Academy of Languages, Heidelberg	Heidelberg, Germany