IDIOMS & PHRASES

English Grammar Tutorials

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Definitions For Idiom And Phrase

Idiom Definition :

An idiom is a group of two or more words which we have to treat as a unit in learning a language. We cannot arrive at the meaning of the idiom just by adding together the meaning of the words inside it. [to carry out = execute]

Phrase Definition :

Phrase is a group of words usually without predicate especially preposition with the word. [with blue eyes]

A fixed or set expression that cannot be determined from the individual parts.

Examples

Alarm bells start to ring	Alarm bells start to ring when I found out that he still lived with his mother.
ABC	Nancy does not know even the ABC of Maths.
And so on	He dances, sings and plays music and so on.
As usual	I had my cup in the morning, as usual.
Albatross around your neck	The company that he founded in 1990 is now an albatross around his neck.
All told	There were 100 people there, all told.
All in all	As his father is no more, Mr. David himself is all in all in his family.
All over	Michael has travelled all over the world.
All along	There are trees all along the road.
All for	I am all for it
At last	At last, we got at the conclusion
At best	At best he is a good master.
At bottom	No doubt, he is a strict but a helping man at bottom.
At times	He comes here, at times.
At ease	After the work was over, I was really at ease.
At hand	My exam is at hand.
At a time	Give me 100$ at a time.
At heart	Robert looks rough and tough but he is kind at heart.
At sight	A bank draft is payable at sight.
At sixes and sevens	All the books were at sixes and sevens.
At once	Go there at once.
As if	Robert talks as if he is my boss.
As for	As for his appointment so many letters have come
As a rule	As a rule, the first letter of a proper noun is always capital.
As a result of	As a result of police firing, three persons were killed at Paris on 25th of December, 2012.
As long As	As long as you believe in God you will be happy.
At home	You will surely feel there at home.
AS well as	Robert as well as David have gone.
Act on	This medicine will act on the heart.
Act for	Stella acted for me while I was ill.
Account for	You will have to account for every rupee you spent.
On account of	One account of illness, she did not cook today.
On no account	On no account I believe in what she says.
Turn to account	If you are offered with chance by the boss, turn to account.
All the same	No doubt Sarah has been busy, all the same she should have written.
Agree with	Hope you will agree with me that Sarah is a good girl.
Alma mater	She has been offered the position of Professor of international economic policy at princeton, her alma mater.
Be out of the ark	My grandfather’s hat was straight out of the ark.
Go bananas	He will go bananas if he sees the room in this state.
Have your hands full	It is no use asking Rosy for help, she is got her hands-full looking after the kids.
The green-eyed monster	Do you think his criticisms of Robert are valid or is it just a case of the green-eyed monster?

Idioms And Phrases In English

20+ examples.

All walks of life	in all aspects of life
Gandhi had disciples from all walks of life.

to consist of	to contain
Our class consists of 55 students.

To be one in essence	to the same
Men and women are one in essence.

To be a part of	to belong to something
Non-violence is a part of Indian tradition.

To be fit for	to be suitable
She is fit for the post of a typist.

To find out	to discover
The police found out the thief.

To serve the purpose	to meet the requirement
Scholorship alone will not serve the purpose.

To come across	to meet
Everyday we come across processions in our roads.

Thanks to	due to (because of)
Thanks to the bold knocks of Sachin, India won the match.

To be gifted with	to be blessed with
Man is gifted with reasoning power.

To bring about	to effect
Marriage brought about great changes in his behaviour.

To lie dormant	unused
We should not allow our skills lie dormant in ourselves.

To wake up	to rise and act
When the opportunity knocks at our door, we should wake up.

In the largest measure	in great quantities
Arnold helped the Tsunami victims in the largest measure.

By nature	naturally
She is very sensitive by nature.

To bestow on	to give as a gift
Nature has bestowed many riches on us.

in term of	in relation of
The politicians should undertake projects in terms of their necessity for the people.

To take the lead	to go forward
India should take the lead to spread the message of no-violence.

A far cry	something difficult to achieve
A casteless society has become a far cry.

Examples Of Idioms And Phrases In English Grammar

18 Examples.

To get to	to reach
It look four hours to get to the heart of the city.

In hot pursuit	following quickly behind
The police are in hot pursuit of the most-wanted criminal.

Step off	to get down
As soon as I stepped off the bus, I saw David.

In the wake of	coming after or following something
Japan surrendered in the wake of dropping atom bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Come to a halt	come to a sudden end.
The car came to a halt as the railway gate was closed.

Turn out to be	to prove to be
Most of the politicians turn out to be selfish.

Hard to come by	difficult to find
an honest leader is very hard to come by these days.

To sit out	to stay in a place and wait for something unpleasant or boring to finish
It is very difficult to sit out a one-side cricket match.

En rout to	on the way
Our bus broke down en route to Paris.

To know like the back of one’s hand	to be very familiar with something or some place.
I know every street in London like the back of my hand.

Experience of a life time	to be remembered till the death of somebody
My first air travel was an experience of a life time.

At hand	very near in time
I have a lot of assignments at hand.

on the final leg	on the last part of (the journey)
Our final leg of the trip was by camel.

To tread on	walking carefully
The servant-maid helped the children to tread on the uneven road.

In all	as a total
In all, there were ten elephants in the herd.

At the mercy of	unable to stop somebody or something harming the other because of one’s control over someone
The wife does not want to put herself at the mercy of her husband.

To head back	to return
The England Cricket team is heading back to the country after its historic win.

To come to life	to become exciting or full of activity
The galleries came to life when Sachin lifted the ball to the galleries.