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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).
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 ...
5 shilling coin or equivalent amount (obsolete; used in slang until the early 1970s, especially in "half-dollar"=half-crown, but some re-stamped Spanish dollar coins were used in the UK in the late 18th/early 19th century) major unit of currency of the US dormitory, dorm
It is a common catchphrase in German, with examples of its use in work by Martin Luther, Johannes Kepler, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Otto von Bismarck, Thomas Mann, and Günter Grass. [6] [7] Thomas Carlyle adapted the concept in an 1849 essay on slavery: [7] And if true, it is important for us, in reference to this Negro Question and some others.
Regional vocabulary within American English varies. Below is a list of lexical differences in vocabulary that are generally associated with a region. A term featured on a list may or may not be found throughout the region concerned, and may or may not be recognized by speakers outside that region. Some terms appear on more than one list.
The English language was introduced to the Americas by the arrival of the British, beginning in the late 16th and early 17th centuries.The language also spread to numerous other parts of the world as a result of British trade and settlement and the spread of the former British Empire, which, by 1921, included 470–570 million people, about a quarter of the world's population.
The saying is typically used when someone is rushing into something. "Cool your jets" is an essentially identical idiom. However it also has a more literal meaning and in certain circumstances is the preferred idiom to use. "Hold your horses" literally means to keep your horse (s) still, not to be confused with holding them in a stable. Someone ...
American English (AmE), sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, [b] is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. [4] English is the most widely spoken language in the United States; the de facto common language used in government, education and commerce; and an official language of most U.S. states (32 out of 50). [5]