Idioms Examples

Idioms are figures of speech whose meaning cannot be determined by looking at the words. These phrases or expressions have come to mean something separate from the words that make them up.

It's raining cats and dogs.

We packed everything but the kitchen sink.

The math test was a piece of cake.

You should give it a shot.

I have mixed feelings about the game tonight.

Mrs. James said we will have to play it by ear.

Examples of Idioms in Literature:

From Shakespeare's Hamlet: There's a method in my madness."

From Shakespeare's Henry VI: "Mum's the word."

From Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:

"He at the last appointed him on one,/ and let all others from his hearte gon,

And chose her of his own authority; / for love is blind all day, and may not see."

From John Steinbeck's East of Eden:

"Old Black Joe started crowing out in the hen house. Then Mother's rocking chair cricked for all the world like she was sitting in it. You know I don't take truck with that but it set me minding backwards, you know how you do sometimes."