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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).
Latin Translation Notes a bene placito: from one well pleased: i.e., "at will" or "at one's pleasure". This phrase, and its Italian (beneplacito) and Spanish (beneplácito) derivatives, are synonymous with the more common ad libitum (at pleasure).
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.
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]
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 ...
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.
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 ...
Back-seat driver. Barking up the wrong tree. Glossary of English-language idioms derived from baseball. Bed of roses. Belling the Cat. Best friends forever. Between Scylla and Charybdis. Bill matter. Birds of a feather flock together.