Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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).
The streets are paved with gold; The stupid monkey knows not to eat the banana skin; The truth is effortless (Rashida Costa) The way to a man's heart is through his stomach; The work praises the man. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch; There are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream
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 ...
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 ...
Main page; Contents; Current events; Random article; About Wikipedia; Contact us; Pages for logged out editors learn more
An idiom dictionary may be a traditional book or expressed in another medium such as a database within software for machine translation.Examples of the genre include Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which explains traditional allusions and proverbs, and Fowler's Modern English Usage, which was conceived as an idiom dictionary following the completion of the Concise Oxford English ...
While the Olympic medals are a customary gift for winning athletes, this year's awards also have a special touch to them: Each gold, silver and bronze medal has an 18-gram hexagonal piece of iron ...
accursed hunger for gold: From Virgil, Aeneid, Book 3, 57. Later quoted by Seneca as quod non mortalia pectora coges, auri sacra fames ("what do not you force mortal hearts [to do], accursed hunger for gold"). auribus teneo lupum: I hold a wolf by the ears: Common ancient proverb, this version from Terence. It indicates that one is in a ...