The complete collection
Browse strange phrases A–Z
725 expressions, arranged for wandering. Open any entry for its meaning, history, variants, sources, and examples.
A
49 phrases- A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
- A cat on a hot tin roof
- A chip off the old block
- A dark horse
- A dime a dozen
- A drop in the bucket
- A feather in your cap
- A flash in the pan
- A fly in the ointment
- A fool and his money are soon parted
- A foregone conclusion
- A friend in need is a friend indeed
- A labour of love
- A laughing stock
- A law unto themselves
- A leopard can't change its spots
- A month of Sundays
- A needle in a haystack
- A rolling stone gathers no moss
- A sair fecht
- A sea change
- A soft answer turns away wrath
- A stitch in time saves nine
- A stone's throw
- A stumbling block
- A thorn in your side
- A tower of strength
- A voice crying in the wilderness
- A watched pot never boils
- A wild-goose chase
- A wolf in sheep's clothing
- Above board
- According to Cocker
- Acting the maggot
- Aid and abet
- All and sundry
- All fur coat and no knickers
- All hat and no cattle
- All Lombard Street to a China orange
- All mouth and no trousers
- All my eye and Betty Martin
- All that glitters is not gold
- All's well that ends well
- An elegant sufficiency
- Apple of your eye
- At daggers drawn
- At His Majesty's pleasure
- At your wits' end
- Away with the fairies
B
39 phrases- Back to square one
- Bag and baggage
- Bark is worse than their bite
- Bark up the wrong tree
- Barking mad
- Bated breath
- Batten down the hatches
- Beat a dead horse
- Beat around the bush
- Beat the bushes
- Beck and call
- Before you can say Jack Robinson
- Beggars can't be choosers
- Better late than never
- Between wind and water
- Bigger than Dallas
- Birds of a feather flock together
- Bite off more than you can chew
- Bite the bullet
- Bite the dust
- Bite your tongue
- Black affronted
- Blow hot and cold
- Blow off steam
- Blow the cobwebs away
- Blow your own trumpet
- Bob's your uncle
- Box of birds
- Break the ice
- Buckley's chance
- Burn the candle at both ends
- Burn the midnight oil
- Burn your bridges
- Bush party
- Buy the farm
- By and large
- By hook or by crook
- By the book
- By the skin of your teeth
C
39 phrases- Carry coals to Newcastle
- Carry on like a pork chop
- Cast pearls before swine
- Cast the first stone
- Cat got your tongue?
- Catawampus
- Caught between a rock and a hard place
- Caught flat-footed
- Caught in the act
- Caught in the crossfire
- Caught in the crosshairs
- Caught napping
- Caught on the back foot
- Caught on the hop
- Caught red-handed
- Caught with chaff
- Caught with egg on your face
- Caught with your hand in the cookie jar
- Caught with your hand in the till
- Caught with your pants down
- Chapter and verse
- Charity begins at home
- Cheap at half the price
- Children should be seen and not heard
- Close, but no cigar
- Cock a snook
- Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
- Cold feet
- Come from away
- Come the raw prawn
- Copper-bottomed
- Cross that bridge when you come to it
- Cry over spilled milk
- Cry wolf
- Curry favour
- Cut and dried
- Cut of your jib
- Cut the mustard
- Cut to the chase
D
27 phrases- Damp squib
- Davy Jones's locker
- Dead as a doornail
- Devil a bit
- Dine with Duke Humphrey
- Dinna fash yourself
- Do the needful
- Dog days of summer
- Dog eat dog
- Dollars to doughnuts
- Don't bite the hand that feeds you
- Don't count your chickens before they hatch
- Don't give up the day job
- Don't hold your breath
- Don't look a gift horse in the mouth
- Don't put all your eggs in one basket
- Don't rest on your laurels
- Don't rock the boat
- Don't shoot the messenger
- Don't take any wooden nickels
- Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs
- Don't throw stones in glass houses
- Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
- Don't upset the apple cart
- Donkey's years
- Double-double
- Drugstore cowboy
E
18 phrases- Easier said than done
- Easy as pie
- Eat crow
- Eat humble pie
- Eat like a bird
- Eat like a horse
- Eat like a pig
- Eat out of house and home
- Eat out of your hand
- Eat your hat
- Eat your heart out
- Eat your words
- Eat, drink and be merry
- Every cloud has a silver lining
- Every dog has its day
- Every man for himself
- Every trick in the book
- Eyes bigger than your stomach
F
33 phrases- Face like thunder
- Face the music
- Facts are chiels that winna ding
- Fair and square
- Fair crack of the whip
- Fair to middling
- Fall between two stools
- Fall off the wagon
- Familiarity breeds contempt
- Fast and loose
- Feel your oats
- Fight the good fight
- Fine and dandy
- Fine as frog hair
- Fine words butter no parsnips
- First come, first served
- Fish or cut bait
- Fish out of water
- Fit as a butcher's dog
- Fit as a fiddle
- Fit to be tied
- Five by five
- Flat as a pancake
- Flat out like a lizard drinking
- Flesh and blood
- Fly by the seat of your pants
- Fly off the handle
- Fool's gold
- For love or money
- Foul play
- From pillar to post
- Full of beans
- Full of hot air
G
29 phrases- Get a leg up
- Get a wiggle on
- Get your ducks in a row
- Get your goat
- Give a wide berth
- Give as good as you get
- Give it a whirl
- Give no quarter
- Give someone the cold shoulder
- Give someone the runaround
- Give someone the third degree
- Give the devil his due
- Give the game away
- Give the green light
- Give the slip
- Give up the ghost
- Give'r
- Go bung
- Go for broke
- Go for the big skate
- Go out on a limb
- Go pound sand
- Go the extra mile
- Go the whole hog
- Go to Jericho
- Gone for a Burton
- Gone pear-shaped
- Good riddance
- Gordon Bennett
H
45 phrases- Hair of the dog
- Hale and hearty
- Hammer and tongs
- Hang a Larry
- Hang a Roger
- Hang by a thread
- Hang in there
- Hang up your skates
- Happy as a clam
- Happy as a sandboy
- Happy as Larry
- Hard and fast
- Have a bone to pick
- Have a butcher's
- Have a Captain Cook
- Have a chip on your shoulder
- Have a dekko
- Have a screw loose
- Have a tiger by the tail
- Have an axe to grind
- Have bigger fish to fry
- Have your cake and eat it
- Heavens to Betsy
- Hell in a handbasket
- Hell-bent for leather
- Helter-skelter
- High muckety-muck
- High on the hog
- Hit the ground running
- Hit the nail on the head
- Hither and thither
- Hobson's choice
- Hoist with your own petard
- Hold the fort
- Hold the line
- Hold thumbs
- Hold water
- Hold your horses
- Hold your own
- Hold your tongue
- Holy mackerel
- Horse of a different color
- Hue and cry
- Hunky-dory
- Hurly-burly
I
25 phrases- If wishes were horses, beggars would ride
- Ignorance is bliss
- In a New York minute
- In a nutshell
- In a pickle
- In a pig's eye
- In fine fettle
- In for a penny, in for a pound
- In hot water
- In like a dirty shirt
- In like Flynn
- In over your head
- In the bag
- In the black
- In the doghouse
- In the doldrums
- In the driver's seat
- In the heat of the moment
- In the lap of luxury
- In the nick of time
- In the pink
- In the red
- In the same boat
- In the soup
- In the twinkling of an eye
J
14 phrasesK
28 phrases- Katy, bar the door
- Keep it under your hat
- Keep the ball rolling
- Keep the wolf from the door
- Keep your eye on the ball
- Keep your eyes peeled
- Keep your hair on
- Keep your nose clean
- Keep your nose to the grindstone
- Keep your pants on
- Keep your pecker up
- Keep your powder dry
- Keep your shirt on
- Kick against the pricks
- Kick over the traces
- Kick the bucket
- Kick the can down the road
- Kick the habit
- Kick up a fuss
- Kick up your heels
- Kill two birds with one stone
- Kindly revert
- Kith and kin
- Knock down a cheque
- Knock for a loop
- Knock on wood
- Knock yourself out
- Know your onions
L
35 phrases- Lang may your lum reek
- Laugh like a drain
- Laughing all the way to the bank
- Lead-pipe cinch
- Leave much to be desired
- Leave no stone unturned
- Let her rip
- Let sleeping dogs lie
- Let the cat out of the bag
- Lickety-split
- Like a bat out of hell
- Like a bear with a sore head
- Like a bolt from the blue
- Like a bull at a gate
- Like a bull in a china shop
- Like a cat with nine lives
- Like a deer in the headlights
- Like a dog with two tails
- Like a kid in a candy store
- Like a lamb to the slaughter
- Like a moth to a flame
- Like a red rag to a bull
- Like all get-out
- Like billy-o
- Like herding cats
- Like Hogan's goat
- Like shooting fish in a barrel
- Like the clappers
- Like turkeys voting for Christmas
- Lollygag
- London to a brick
- Long may your big jib draw
- Long time no see
- Loose cannon
- Love is blind
M
37 phrases- Mad as a cut snake
- Mad as a hatter
- Madder than a wet hen
- Make a beeline
- Make a clean breast
- Make a clean sweep
- Make a hames of
- Make a holy show of yourself
- Make a meal of it
- Make a mountain out of a molehill
- Make a pig of yourself
- Make a pig's ear
- Make a rod for your own back
- Make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
- Make a song and dance
- Make a virtue of necessity
- Make ends meet
- Make hay while the sun shines
- Make no bones about it
- Make no odds
- Make the grade
- Make waves
- Man does not live by bread alone
- Many a little makes a mickle
- Many hands make light work
- May Two-Four
- Method in the madness
- Might and main
- Mind like a steel trap
- Mind your Ps and Qs
- Monday morning quarterback
- Money burns a hole in your pocket
- Monkey on your back
- Monkey's wedding
- More haste, less speed
- Murder will out
- My brother's keeper
N
33 phrases- Neck and crop
- Neither use nor ornament
- Nip it in the bud
- No dice
- No man is an island
- No rose without a thorn
- No skin off my nose
- No spring chicken
- None of your beeswax
- Not a leg to stand on
- Not a patch on
- Not a snowball's chance in hell
- Not all there
- Not cricket
- Not for Joe
- Not give a hoot
- Not give a monkey's
- Not give a tinker's cuss
- Not just whistling Dixie
- Not my cup of tea
- Not my pigeon
- Not playing with a full deck
- Not the full quid
- Not within cooee
- Not worth a brass farthing
- Not worth a hill of beans
- Not worth a plugged nickel
- Not worth a tinker's damn
- Not worth the candle
- Not worth the paper it's written on
- Nothing new under the sun
- Now-now
- Null and void
O
32 phrases- Off the cuff
- Off the hook
- Off your high horse
- Off your rocker
- On a hiding to nothing
- On a wing and a prayer
- On cloud nine
- On tenterhooks
- On the back foot
- On the ball
- On the breadline
- On the fritz
- On the horns of a dilemma
- On the lam
- On the pig's back
- On the Q.T.
- On the razzle
- On the ropes
- On the skids
- On the straight and narrow
- On the wagon
- On the wallaby track
- On the wrong side of the tracks
- One fell swoop
- One over the eight
- Out of sight, out of mind
- Out of station
- Out of the blue
- Out of your depth
- Out to lunch
- Over a barrel
- Over-egg the pudding
P
28 phrases- Paint the town red
- Part and parcel
- Pass the buck
- Pell-mell
- Penny wise and pound foolish
- Piece of cake
- Pipe down
- Play hooky
- Play it by ear
- Play second fiddle
- Pull out all the stops
- Pull the wool over your eyes
- Put a damper on
- Put a sock in it
- Put paid to
- Put the cart before the horse
- Put the comether on
- Put the heart crossways in someone
- Put the kibosh on
- Put the screws on
- Put the wind up
- Put through the wringer
- Put up your dukes
- Put wood in the hole
- Put your best foot forward
- Put your foot in it
- Put your money where your mouth is
- Put your oar in
Q
7 phrasesR
30 phrases- Rack and ruin
- Rain on your parade
- Raining buckets
- Raining cats and dogs
- Raining pitchforks
- Raise the roof
- Rank and file
- Rattle your dags
- Read the Riot Act
- Reap the whirlwind
- Reap what you sow
- Ride herd on
- Ride roughshod over
- Ride shotgun
- Ride the wave
- Root and branch
- Root, hog, or die
- Round the bend
- Ruffle some feathers
- Rule of thumb
- Run a mile
- Run a tight ship
- Run around like a headless chicken
- Run like the wind
- Run of the mill
- Run off your feet
- Run out of steam
- Run ragged
- Run rings around
- Run the gauntlet
S
54 phrases- Sackcloth and ashes
- Saddle someone with
- Safe and sound
- Salad days
- Salt of the earth
- Saved by the bell
- Say uncle
- Scarce as hen's teeth
- Scot-free
- Scraping the barrel
- Screw the pooch
- See a man about a dog
- See the elephant
- See which way the wind blows
- Send someone packing
- Send someone to Coventry
- Set your teeth on edge
- Shanks's pony
- Sharp as a tack
- Shipshape and Bristol fashion
- Shoot from the hip
- Shoot the breeze
- Short shrift
- Show a leg
- Sick as a dog
- Sick as a parrot
- Sick as a pig
- Sick to death
- Sick to the back teeth
- Signs of the times
- Sing like a bird
- Sing like a canary
- Skeleton in the closet
- Sling your hook
- Sly as a fox
- Smart aleck
- Soft day, thank God
- Spare the rod and spoil the child
- Spend a penny
- Spick and span
- Spill the beans
- Spit and image
- Splice the mainbrace
- Square the circle
- Stag and doe
- Steal someone's thunder
- Stick your neck out
- Still waters run deep
- Stool pigeon
- Straight from the horse's mouth
- Strange bedfellows
- Suffer fools gladly
- Sweet as
- Swing the lead
T
56 phrases- Take a rain check
- Take French leave
- Take it on the chin
- Take it with a grain of salt
- Take the bit between your teeth
- Take the bull by the horns
- Take the cake
- Take the gilt off the gingerbread
- Take the high road
- Take the mickey
- Take the rough with the smooth
- Take the sting out
- Take the wind out of your sails
- Talk the hind leg off a donkey
- Talk turkey
- That dog won't hunt
- The be-all and end-all
- The best-laid schemes of mice and men
- The better part of valour is discretion
- The bitter end
- The blind leading the blind
- The cat's pajamas
- The eleventh hour
- The green-eyed monster
- The last best West
- The law is an ass
- The life of Riley
- The more the merrier
- The mote in your eye
- The pot calling the kettle black
- The powers that be
- The root of all evil
- The root of the matter
- The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
- The whole ball of wax
- The whole nine yards
- The whole shebang
- The world and his wife
- The world is your oyster
- The writing on the wall
- There's the rub
- Throw a monkey wrench into the works
- Throw a spanner in the works
- Throw in the towel
- Tickety-boo
- Time and tide wait for no man
- To and fro
- Tooth and nail
- Topsy-turvy
- Tuckered out
- Turn King's evidence
- Turn the other cheek
- Turn up trumps
- Twenty-three skidoo
- Two solitudes
- Two-four
U
22 phrases- Under bare poles
- Under false colours
- Under the gun
- Under the table
- Under the weather
- Under the wire
- Under your thumb
- Up a blind alley
- Up a gum tree
- Up and running
- Up in arms
- Up in the air
- Up the ante
- Up the boohai
- Up the creek
- Up the duff
- Up the wall
- Up to scratch
- Up to the mark
- Up to your ears
- Up to your neck
- Up your sleeve
W
27 phrases- Walk on eggshells
- Wash your hands of something
- We're all Jock Tamson's bairns
- Wear and tear
- Wear your heart on your sleeve
- Wet behind the ears
- What in Sam Hill?
- What is your good name?
- What's done is done
- What's the craic?
- When hell freezes over
- When in Rome
- When pigs fly
- When push comes to shove
- When the cat's away
- When the chips are down
- When the cows come home
- When the dust settles
- When the fat lady sings
- When the going gets tough
- When your ship comes in
- Where there's muck there's brass
- Whoop it up
- Wild and woolly
- Willy-nilly
- Without let or hindrance
- Without rhyme or reason
X
2 phrasesY
14 phrases- You can lead a horse to water
- You can't have it both ways
- You can't judge a book by its cover
- You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs
- You can't polish a turd
- You can't put the genie back in the bottle
- You can't take it with you
- You can't teach an old dog new tricks
- You can't win them all
- You're pulling my leg
- You're the bee's knees
- You've got another think coming
- You've got rocks in your head
- You've got your work cut out
Z
2 phrasesNo phrase matches that filter
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