Idioms from USA

Question	Answer
clean as a whistle	completely honest and legal
Let the cat out of the bag	to reveal a secret or surprise by an accident
be born with a silver spoon in your mouth	have advantages because you come form a rich family
burn the midnight oil	to stay up working, especially studying, late at night
call a spade a spade	to call something by its right name
get the wrong end of the stick	understand something completely wrongly
rain cats and dogs	to rain very hard
a leopard can't change its spots	used for saying that someone wll never change their behavior or charakter
out of this world	extremely good or impressive
turn over a new leaf	change your life by starting to be a better person or stopping a bad habit
see eye to eye (with sb)	agree with someone or have the same opinion as them
on good terms (with)	have a good relationship with someone
not have a leg to stand on	not have any way of proving that you are right about something
wet blanket	a depressing person who spoils other people's enjoyment
kick youself	to be annoyed because you missed an opportunity, have made a mistake
make (both) ends meet	to earn and spend equal amounts of money
get on like a house on fire	become a good friends very quickly and have a lot in common
the prime of life	the best years of life
add fuel to the fire	make a bad situation worst
for a song	very cheaplly, for little money
worth its weight in gold	very valuable
open a can of worms	to create a situation that will cause trouble
to be as brown as a berry	very suntanned
hit the books	to study hard
full of beans	lively, energetic
sail close to the wind	to do something that is dangerous
no skin of my nose	you don't care about something because it will not affect you (it is not your problem)
turn a blind eye	to ignore something and pretend you don't see it
drive someone insane	to annoy someone
where there's a will, there's a way	if you truly want to do something, you will find a way to do it
the early bird catches the worm	succes comes to thoes who prepare well and put in effort
give lip service to	to say that you agree with and support an idea or plan but not do anything to help it to succeed
have a change of heart	to change one's attitude or decision, usually from a negative to a positive position
out of the blue	At a completely unexpected time
dead beat	completely exhausted
at a low ebb	in a bad or weak state
sell somebody down the river	to do something which harms or disappoints someone who trusted you, in order to get an advantage for yourself
make a night of it	to spend the entire evening or night doing something
have egg on one's face	to be embarrassed by something one has done
upset the applecart	to cause trouble, especially by spoiling someone's plans
have a second bite at the cherry	another opportunity to do something
work against the clock	to work very fast because you know you only have a limited period of time to do sth
to put something on the back burner	to give something lower priority
teething troubles	difficulties at the beginning of an activity
in deep water	in serious trouble
on easy street	free from difficulties
over the moon	be happy
get cold feet	be scared
have a bee in your bonnet	be obsessed with sth
hopping mad	very angry
put your best foot forward	do your best
have other fish to fry	have more important things to do
well and truly	completely

clean as a whistle

completely honest and legal

Let the cat out of the bag

to reveal a secret or surprise by an accident

be born with a silver spoon in your mouth

have advantages because you come form a rich family

burn the midnight oil

to stay up working, especially studying, late at night

call a spade a spade

to call something by its right name

get the wrong end of the stick

understand something completely wrongly

rain cats and dogs

to rain very hard

a leopard can't change its spots

used for saying that someone wll never change their behavior or charakter

out of this world

extremely good or impressive

turn over a new leaf

change your life by starting to be a better person or stopping a bad habit

see eye to eye (with sb)

agree with someone or have the same opinion as them

on good terms (with)

have a good relationship with someone

not have a leg to stand on

not have any way of proving that you are right about something

wet blanket

a depressing person who spoils other people's enjoyment

kick youself

to be annoyed because you missed an opportunity, have made a mistake

make (both) ends meet

to earn and spend equal amounts of money

get on like a house on fire

become a good friends very quickly and have a lot in common

the prime of life

the best years of life

add fuel to the fire

make a bad situation worst

for a song

very cheaplly, for little money

worth its weight in gold

very valuable

open a can of worms

to create a situation that will cause trouble

to be as brown as a berry

very suntanned

hit the books

to study hard

full of beans

lively, energetic

sail close to the wind

to do something that is dangerous

no skin of my nose

you don't care about something because it will not affect you (it is not your problem)

turn a blind eye

to ignore something and pretend you don't see it

drive someone insane

to annoy someone

where there's a will, there's a way

if you truly want to do something, you will find a way to do it

the early bird catches the worm

succes comes to thoes who prepare well and put in effort

give lip service to

to say that you agree with and support an idea or plan but not do anything to help it to succeed

have a change of heart

to change one's attitude or decision, usually from a negative to a positive position

out of the blue

At a completely unexpected time

dead beat

completely exhausted

at a low ebb

in a bad or weak state

sell somebody down the river

to do something which harms or disappoints someone who trusted you, in order to get an advantage for yourself

make a night of it

to spend the entire evening or night doing something

have egg on one's face

to be embarrassed by something one has done

upset the applecart

to cause trouble, especially by spoiling someone's plans

have a second bite at the cherry

another opportunity to do something

work against the clock

to work very fast because you know you only have a limited period of time to do sth

to put something on the back burner

to give something lower priority

teething troubles

difficulties at the beginning of an activity

in deep water

in serious trouble

on easy street

free from difficulties

over the moon

be happy

get cold feet

be scared

have a bee in your bonnet

be obsessed with sth

hopping mad

very angry

put your best foot forward

do your best

have other fish to fry

have more important things to do

well and truly

completely

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	Created by Emilia Olszewska over 8 years ago