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William Shakespeare's play Hamlet has contributed many phrases to common English, from the famous "To be, or not to be" to a few less known, but still in everyday English. Some also occur elsewhere (e.g. in the Bible) or are proverbial. All quotations are second quarto except as noted:
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
A list of metaphors in the English language organised alphabetically by type. A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels".
This is a list of catchphrases found in American and British english language television and film, where a catchphrase is a short phrase or expression that has gained usage beyond its initial scope. These are not merely catchy sayings.
There’s another instance when the “it’s OK” phrase often comes up—when someone has hurt your feelings or crossed a boundary, and instead, you say, “It’s OK,” so you don’t rock ...
The grass is always greener (on the other side) (of the fence) The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world; The husband is always the last to know; The innocent seldom find an uncomfortable pillow – William Cowper, English poet (1731–1800) [28] The labourer is worthy of his hire; It is the last straw that breaks the camel's back
A word-by-word translation of an opaque idiom will most likely not convey the same meaning in other languages. The English idiom kick the bucket has a variety of equivalents in other languages, such as kopnąć w kalendarz ("kick the calendar") in Polish, casser sa pipe ("to break one’s pipe") in French [13] and tirare le cuoia ("pulling the ...
This is a list of idioms that were recognizable to literate people in the late-19th century, and have become unfamiliar since.. As the article list of idioms in the English language notes, a list of idioms can be useful, since the meaning of an idiom cannot be deduced by knowing the meaning of its constituent words.