Cat Verbal / English section

Day 15

Idioms - Bell The CAT!

Here I am giving you some most commonly used Idioms in English.

IDIOMES / PHRASAL VERBS:

Though CAT never ask direct meaning of idioms I still feel that these questions are important. While attempting questions like sentence correction, sentence improvement we should know the usage of idioms. Lets start with some simple idioms which we commonly use in English:

1.      Turn over a new leaf: Make a fresh start

2.      To make mountains of molehills: Make trifling difficulties seem insuperable

3.      Hit the nail on the head: say something exactly right

4.      It makes no odds: it makes no difference

5.      Pour oil on troubled waters: use tact and discretion

6.      Part and parcel: essential portion

7.      Rain cats and dogs: rain heavily

8.      Smell a rat: defect something suspicious

9.      By rule of the thumb: by experience

10.   Born with a silver spoon in mouth: Born in a wealthy family

11.   Crocodile tears: Hypocritical tears

12.   Between the devil and the deep sea: caught between the two equal devils

13.   Make both ends meet: Live within one’s budgeted income

14.   Sour grapes: disparaging what is one’s beyond reach

15.   Blood is thicker than water: kinship is stronger than friendship (you know khoon ka rishta!)

16.   Take the bull by the horns: Attack danger boldly

17.   To come off with flying colours: to achieve distinction

18.   To fish in troubled water: to make most of a bad bargain

19.   To put down in black and white: to write down on paper

20.   In cold blood: without heat

21.   To kill two birds with one stone: achieve two aims with a single effort

22.   Beat about the bush / Beat around the bush: evade the issue

23.   Hit below the belt: fight unfairly

24.   To let the cat out of bag: to reveal the secrete

25.   Once in a blue moon: rarely

26.   The alpha and omega: beginning and end

27.   To mind one’s p’s and q’s: to be accurate and precise

28.   A feather in one’s cap: an achievement to be proud of

29.   To cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth: to live within one’s mean

30.   Bell the cat: to do the dangerous job                             

and many more....

I still remember the day when we were taught idioms in the class. Guess which class it was? It was the AOL training session in Bangalore for technical support.