idioms are expressions that don't mean what they appear to mean.

For example, when you say 'it's raining cats and dogs', you don't mean that cats and dogs are falling out of sky, but rather that it's raining heavily. Idioms provide interesting insights into languages and thought processes of their speakers. up vote1down An idiom is an expression that can be understood only as a whole and

voteaccepted

not by analysing its constituent parts.

idiom /dm/N

1. a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the meanings of the
constituent words, as for example (It was raining)cats and dogs 2. linguistic usage that is grammatical and natural to native speakers of a language 3. the characteristic artistic style of an individual, school, period, etc Etymology: 16th Century: from Latin idima peculiarity of language, from Greek; see IDIOidiomatic /dmtk/ADJidiomaticallyADV

'idiom' also found in these entries: In the English description: Anglicism - archaic - Arnold - Atticism - colloquial - different - folk music -folk song - formal - Gallicism Goodman - Graecism - Hibernicism -informal - Latinism - nonstandard - parlance - Partridge - Rubbra Scotticism - slang - songwriter - standard - talk - tongue

Forum discussions with the word(s) "idiom" in the title:

...and I am the King of Poland (Idiom) ...as much as a fish needs a bicycle - Idiom ...Like herding cats - Idiom 'Bet all your chips on' something: Idiom 'call a spade a spade': an equivalent idiom? (AE) [idiom] - When life gives you lemons "Got divorced" idiom. "Has the cork popped for them?" - Idiom "have among"/an idiom or an omission? "On the horizon" - Idiom/phrase "Put the mocca" OR "put the moccha" on - Aussie Idiom "What is your deal?" [idiom] A brain-out-of-gear situation (Idiom) A gypsy run - Idiom in context of theatre about an idiom! AE Idiom : In the pocket air + stomach idiom meaning scared Am I all wet (idiom?) an English idiom to mean 'deal with unexpected situations' an idiom an idiom An idiom about "spade" an idiom about "taking the action"

An idiom about obstinate denial of reality

An idiom about something free An idiom refers to a tough-and-soft psychological tactic An idiom that means "quality is more important than quantity" An idiom to call someone who annoys you an idiom to describe a silent person an idiom to describe more mistakes more... Ask in the forums yourself.Visit the English Only Forum.
The Cambridge dictionary defines an idiom as a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word understood on its own: For example To "have bitten off more than you can chew" is an idiom that means you have tried to do something which is too difficult for you.We have offered you a list of c
The noun IDIOM has 4 senses: 1. a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language 2. the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people 3. the style of a particular artist or school or movement 4. an expression whose meanings cannot be inferred from the meanings of the words that make it up

http://www.slideshare.net/irandyra/idiom-and-fixed-expression

gy >Idioms Idioms The English language is full of idioms (over 15,000). Native speakers of English use idioms all the time, often without realising that they are doing so. This means that communication with native speakers of English can be quite a confusing experience. What is an idiom? An idiom is a group of words which, when used together, has a different meaning from the one which the individual words have. For example: - How do you know about John's illness? - Oh, I heard it on the grapevine. Of course, the second speaker does not mean he heard the news about John by putting his ear to a grapevine! He is conveying the idea of information spreading around a widespread network, visually similar to a grapevine. We use idioms to express something that other words do not express as clearly or as cleverly. We often use an image or symbol to describe something as clearly as possible and thus make our point as effectively as

possible. For example, "in a nutshell" suggests the idea of having all the information contained within very few words. Idioms tend to be informal and are best used in spoken rather than written English. Idioms: the good news Sometimes idioms are very easy for learners to understand because there are similar expressions in the speakers' mother tongue. For example: He always goes at things like a bull in a china shop! (In German: ein Elefant in einem Porzellangeschft.) Sometimes you can guess the meaning of new idioms from context. For example, what do you think these idioms mean? 1. He was on the carpet last week for being late for work three times. 2. She made a marvellous speech to the conference. She took the delegates by storm. 3. It was an extremely long report. It took me three hours to wade through. 4. I believe we should talk openly and frankly about the project warts and all. 5. Let's call it a day. I am very tired and we have covered the main points of the meeting I think. Idioms: the bad news However, idioms can often be very difficult to understand. You may be able to guess the meaning from context but if not, it is not easy to know the meaning. Many idioms, for instance, come from favourite traditional British activities such as fighting, sailing, hunting and playing games. As well as being quite specialist in meaning, some of the words in idioms were used two or three hundred years ago, or longer, and can be a little obscure. Here are some examples: 1. Now that the Prime Minister has been elected there will be a lot of jockeying for position to get the key posts in his administration. 2. I finally ran the book to earth in a second-hand bookshop in Wales. I had been searching for it for three years.

3. They took her ideas on board and decided to increase the budget. 4. You should fall in with our arrangements; we can't make alternative plans for you. 5. We saw the boss at the bar but we gave him a wide berth. We did not want to talk to him then. How can I learn idioms? It is best to learn idioms as you do vocabulary. In other words, select and actively learn idioms which will be useful to you. Write the idiom in a relevant and practical sentence so that you will be able to remember its meaning easily. If you can, record the idioms in your file and on a card along with other words and idioms which have similar meanings. sk your Linguarama teacher for information or contact us at POSTSCRIPT.