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“trouble”

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Showing 25–48 of 56 matches

25. Keep your head down

    Meaning To stay quiet and inconspicuous in order to avoid trouble, criticism, or unwelcome attention while a difficult period passes. In British English a second sense, to put your head down and work hard, is also…

    Also known as get your head down · keep one's head down · keep your head low · keeping my head down

26. Skating on thin ice

    Meaning To be doing something risky that could collapse into trouble at any moment; to act in a way that courts danger, confrontation, or failure. It is often used as a warning that someone is close to overstepping a…

    Also known as be on thin ice · skate on thin ice · skating over thin ice · walk on thin ice

27. A thorn in your side

    Meaning A person or problem that causes persistent trouble or irritation. Side and flesh versions coexist, but they have distinct biblical textual histories. Regional use: Biblical English; now widespread.

    Also known as A thorn in one's side

28. Keep your nose clean

    Meaning Stay out of trouble or vice, all clear.

    Also known as Nose clean

29. Ruffle some feathers

    Meaning To upset or annoy people, stirring trouble like ruffling a bird's plumage-disrupting calm with a flap of dissent.

30. The root of all evil

    Meaning … from which serious wrongdoing, corruption, or broader trouble grows. The biblical subject is covetousness or love of money, not money by itself. Regional use: Late Middle English biblical translation; now…

    Also known as The love of money is the root of all evil

31. Feel it in your bones

    Meaning … something will happen or is true - about weather, illness, trouble ahead, or a hunch about a person or decision - and it concedes that the feeling cannot be argued from facts. Informal to neutral; signals…

    Also known as feel it in my bones · feel something in your bones · know it in your bones · sense it in your bones

32. Batten down the hatches

    Meaning To prepare thoroughly for trouble or danger, securing everything tight.

    Also known as Batten the hatches · Down the hatches

33. Stir up a hornets' nest

    Meaning To provoke an outburst of anger, criticism or trouble, usually by raising a controversial subject or disturbing a settled state of affairs. A hornet's nest on its own means a troublesome, hazardous situation…

    Also known as arouse a hornets' nest · kick a hornet's nest · poke a hornet's nest · stir a hornet's nest

34. Curiosity killed the cat

    Meaning … at what should be left alone, can lead you into danger or trouble. Typically said to someone asking unwanted questions or snooping. Often answered jokingly with 'but satisfaction brought it back'. Informal…

    Also known as Care killed the cat · Curiosity killed a cat · Curiosity killed the cat and satisfaction brought it back · Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back

35. Knight in shining armour

    Meaning … a man, who heroically rescues or champions someone in trouble, especially one who turns up unexpectedly and sorts everything out. Frequently used ironically of a rescuer who never materialises. The British…

    Also known as knight in shining armor · knight on a white charger · white knight

36. A canary in the coal mine

    Meaning … underground, it is now used for early indicators of trouble in finance, public health, politics, technology, and the environment. Neutral register suited to journalism and science writing; it implies the…

    Also known as canary in a coal mine · canary in the mine · climate canary

37. The calm before the storm

    Meaning A deceptively quiet or peaceful period just before trouble, conflict or intense activity erupts. Usually spoken with foreboding rather than relief, and also used wryly of stillness before a rush of work such…

    Also known as a calm before the storm · the calm before the tempest · the lull before the storm · the quiet before the storm

38. Sell someone down the river

    Meaning … while pretending loyalty, leaving them in serious trouble. The betrayal is typically severe and often motivated by the betrayer's own gain. Informal but strong; because of its roots in slavery it can sound…

    Also known as sell somebody down the river · sold down the river · sold up the river (a distinct idiom)

39. Make a rod for your own back

    Meaning To set up your own trouble, self-made.

40. Up the creek without a paddle

    Meaning … in serious difficulty with no obvious way out, whether the trouble is financial, practical or social. The phrase stresses helplessness as much as hardship: not only are you in a bad position, you lack the…

    Also known as up a creek without a paddle · up shit creek without a paddle

41. Make waves

    Origin From 20th-century America, tied to boating; waves meant trouble, slang by 1960s for stir. A 1962 'Time' uses it for a rebel's splash.

    Also known as Make the waves

42. Out of the frying pan into the fire

    Meaning … into the second - and often used when a hasty exit from trouble makes matters worse. Neutral register; typically follows a verb of motion and carries a tone of rueful hindsight. Regional use: General English…

    Also known as From the frying pan into the fire

43. The devil finds work for idle hands

    Meaning … especially the young, are likely to drift into mischief or trouble, so staying busy keeps a person out of temptation. Typically used to justify work, hobbies, or structured activity, often with a moralizing…

    Also known as Idle hands are the devil's workshop · Idle hands do the devil's work · Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do · The devil finds work for idle hands to do

44. Exit stage left

    Origin … Daws Butler in a delivery modelled on Bert Lahr; escaping trouble, he would announce his departure as a stage direction, 'Exit, stage left!' (also right, up or down). Rush's 1981 live album Exit... Stage Left…

    Also known as exit stage right · exits stage left · make an exit stage left

45. Hit the jackpot

    Origin … in print to 1881; by 1902 'jackpot' was criminal slang for trouble or an arrest, and the word was applied to the top payout on slot machines by 1932, generalising to 'big prize' by 1944. The figurative verb…

    Also known as win the jackpot

46. Snowball effect

    Origin … A 1905 Minneapolis Journal cartoon, showing students rolling an ever-larger snowball of trouble for Tsar Nicholas II, shows the metaphor at work decades before the phrase settled into its modern fixed form…

    Also known as a snowballing problem · like a rolling snowball · snowballing · snowballing effect

47. Back on your feet

    Origin … completely well or back to a normal state after illness or trouble, with the example of someone being back on their feet again, and the extended financial and general-hardship use is now fully standard. No…

    Also known as back on one's feet again · be back on your feet · get back on your feet · up on your feet again

48. Weather the storm

    Origin … 'bear up against and come through safely' applied to trouble or danger, to the 1650s, explaining the underlying notion as 'a ship riding out a storm without damage or loss'. Cambridge Dictionary's current…

    Also known as ride out the storm · weather a storm · weathering the storm