THE MOST COMMON ENGLISH IDIOMS

Abstract

A set of words, or, to put it another way, a phrase, that has a meaning beyond the words’ literal meanings are known as idioms in English.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines an idiom as “a group of words in a fixed order that has a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own.”

Whereas, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an idiom as “a statement in the usage of a language that is distinctive to itself either in having a meaning that cannot be deduced from the conjoined meanings of its constituents.” For example, up in the air for “undecided”) or in its grammatically unconventional word usage (like, give way).