Category: American English Idioms

If you want to learn the most common English idioms, this post will show you how. It’s not that hard to learn idioms, but they are some of the hardest…

GOOD SAMARITAN The phrase, “Good Samaritan” is often used as a metaphor to describe someone who is helpful and does good actions for others. The Good Samaritan was kind unto…

GOLDEN AGE The Golden Age is the age in which people are most actively productive. This phrase derives from the idea that there was a literal Golden Age, or that…

GO UP IN SMOKE This idiom means to be lost, wasted, or destroyed. It usually refers to how money or energy is spent or used up. One example is when…

GO TO POT/SEED The phrase “GO TO POT” is used in the sense of the phrase “going to ruin”. It is mostly used when one perceives something as being “already…

GO OVERBOARD The idiom to go overboard typically means to take an action that’s excessive. For example, if someone says they’re going to be too busy with work and can’t…

GET OFF THE DEEP END The phrase “get off the deep end” is an idiom that typically means to become unstable, agitated, or worrisome relative to a given situation. For…

GO HAYWIRE The idiom “go haywire” translates to “to go wrong” or “to malfunction”. The term is most commonly used in the sense of one’s emotions, like when they are…

GO BANANAS [DRIVE (SOMEONE) BANANAS] The idiom “go bananas” is a colloquial way of saying to go crazy, often in the context of going crazy over something humorous. The idiomatic…

GIVE (SOMEONE) THE SHIRT OFF (ONE’S) BACK The idiom “give someone the shirt off one’s back” means to give someone something of great value, even if it means impoverishing oneself.…