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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).
Cold hands, warm heart [a] Comparisons are odious [a] Count your blessings [a] Courage is the measure of a Man, Beauty is the measure of a Woman [a] Cowards may die many times before their death [a] Crime does not pay [a] Cream rises. Criss-cross, applesauce [a] Cross the stream where it is shallowest.
Idioms—phrases that come to mean more than each word's "literal meaning" on their own—have been a part of spoken language for a long time. They may change as the years go by and often vary ...
A couple of other expressions are quand les poules auront des dents ("when hens have teeth") [19] and quand les coqs pondront des œufs ("when roosters lay eggs"). An expression, today falling into disuse, is la semaine des quatre jeudis ("the week of the four Thursdays"), as in "that will happen (or not) during the week of the four Thursdays ...
The following is a list of phrases from sports that have become idioms (slang or otherwise) in English. They have evolved usages and meanings independent of sports and are often used by those with little knowledge of these games. The sport from which each phrase originates has been included immediately after the phrase.
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. See that article for a fuller ...
ἀπὸ μηχανῆς Θεός. apò mēkhanês Theós. Deus ex machina. "God from the machine". The phrase originates from the way deity figures appeared in ancient Greek theaters, held high up by a machine, to solve a problem in the plot. "Ἀπὸ τοῦ ἡλίου μετάστηθι" — Diogenes the Cynic — in a 1763 painting by ...
Idiom. An idiom is a phrase or expression that usually presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase. Some phrases which become figurative idioms, however, do retain the phrase's literal meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. [1]