List of British English Idioms & Phrases
List of British English Idioms
Listing 203 Entries
- Across the pond
- All mouth and trousers
- All my eye and Peggy Martin
- All talk and no trousers
- An Englishman's home is his castle
- Argue the toss
- As the actress said to the bishop
- At a loose end
- At the end of your tether
- Back foot
- Bad mouth
- Ball of chalk
- Banana skin
- Barrack-room lawyer
- Be up the spout
- Been in the wars
- Beer and skittles
- Before you can say knife
- Belt and braces
- Bent as a nine bob note
- Billy Wind
- Black as Newgate's knocker
- Bob's your uncle
- Box clever
- Brass neck
- Break your duck
- Buggles' turn
- By a long chalk
- Call time
- Canary in a coal mine
- Champagne socialist
- Champagne tastes, beer wages
- Cheap as chips
- Chinese whispers
- Coals to Newcastle
- Come a cropper
- Come up smelling of roses
- Cupboard love
- Curate's egg
- Daft as a brush
- Damp squib
- Death warmed up
- Do a Devon Loch
- Do a Lord Lucan
- Do a runner
- Do the running
- Do time
- Dog in the manger
- Don't wash your dirty laundry in public
- Double Dutch
- Drunk as a lord
- Dull as ditchwater
- Dunkirk spirit
- Early bath
- Easy peasy
- Economical with the truth
- Enough to cobble dogs with
- Fair crack of the whip
- Fall off the back of a lorry
- Fifth columnist
- Fine and dandy
- Flogging a dead horse
- Flutter the dovecotes
- Football's a game of two halves
- For donkey's years
- For England
- Full Monty
- Gardening leave
- Get it in the neck
- Get out of your pram
- Get the nod
- Get your oats
- Give it some stick
- Give someone stick
- Give the nod
- Go doolally
- Go down like a cup of cold sick
- Go down like a lead balloon
- Go pear-shaped
- Go spare
- Go to the foot of our stairs
- Gone for a burton
- Gone pear-shaped
- Grasp the nettle
- Greasy pole
- Green fingers
- Grey pound
- Hairy at the heel
- Hard cheese
- Have a riot
- Have your collar felt
- Hear something on the jungle telegraph
- Heath Robinson
- Hold the baby
- Hold your hands up
- Home, James
- I don't give a pin!
- I should cocoa
- If you'll pardon my French
- In a tick
- In rude health
- In spades
- In the clink
- In the club
- It's as broad as it is long
- Jam tomorrow
- Jersey justice
- Keen as mustard
- Keep your chin up
- Keep your wig on!
- Kick your heels
- Kitchen-sink
- Laugh like a drain
- Laugh to see a pudding crawl
- Laugh up your sleeve
- Leave the field open
- Like a bear with a sore head
- Like giving a donkey strawberries
- Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves
- Lose your bottle
- Lose your lunch
- Make a good fist
- Make a song and dance
- Man on the Clapham omnibus
- Money for old rope
- More front than Brighton
- New man
- Nod's as good as a wink
- Noddy work
- Nosy parker
- Not cricket
- Not give a monkey's
- Off on one
- Off your chump
- Off your oats
- Off your rocker
- On Carey Street
- On the blink
- On the blower
- On the cards
- On the dole
- On the fiddle
- On the game
- On the knock
- On the knocker
- On the never-never
- On the nod
- On the take
- On the trot
- One over the eight
- Out in the sticks
- Over-egg the pudding
- Pin money
- Pink pound
- Plain as a pikestaff
- Play gooseberry
- Pull your finger out!
- Quart into a pint pot
- Queer fish
- Quids in
- Rake over old coals
- Rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic
- Right royal
- Rivers of
- See you anon
- Send someone to Coventry
- Shanks's pony
- Shy bairns get nowt
- Slip through the cracks
- Sound as a pound
- Spend a penny
- Spoil the ship for a ha'pworth of tar
- Square Mile
- Sticky end
- Sticky wicket
- Stiff upper lip
- Swing the lead
- Take the biscuit
- Take the Mickey
- Take up the reins
- Tally ho!
- Tears before bedtime
- Teething problems
- Ten a penny
- Thick as mince
- Thin blue line
- Three sheets in the wind
- Throw a spanner in the works
- Tired and emotional
- Up sticks
- Up the duff
- Up the spout
- Up the stick
- Vicar of Bray
- Wallflower
- Watering hole
- Who wears the trousers?
- Wipe the floor with
- With child
- Wood for the trees
- Wouldn't touch it with a bargepole
- Yeoman's service
- You do not get a dog and bark yourself
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