Idioms and Phrases

List of Metaphors

Metaphor Meaning
A different tack To try another way, Abruptly turns a boat
Account for To be responsible for, Compensate for
Adrift Floating freely without any direction, Aimless
Albatross An animal’s body part, used metaphorically to mean as a burden that feels like a curse.
Arms race Competition between two or more countries for superior military technology
Awash Flooded with seawater or rain
Back and fill To change one’s direction repeatedly, To vacillate in one’s action
Batten down the hatches Prepare for trouble, Prepare for difficult time
Belling the cat To take big risk, To perform dangerous task
Big red button As a symbol of danger, Fictional button that controls a function of critical importance
Blind men and an elephant A picture of relativism and tolerance,

Judging something without actually knowing or seeing

Brass monkey Extremely Cold weather
Bucket brigade A chain of persons acting to solve the big problem
Butterfly effect Minute change in a complex system can have large effects some where else
By and large On the whole, Primarily, Predominantly
Camel’s nose Permitting of small act that will lead to a larger undesirable act or consequence
Chain reaction A series of events
Chicken or the egg Situation in which it is difficult to say which of the two things happens first
Chinese fire drill A state of confusion
Clear the decks To remove unnecessary things to  get ready  for action
Cold feet Loss of  confidence, Hesitate, Too much nervous to do something
Crossing the Rubicon Cross the point of no return, To make an irreversible decision, To take an action with consequences
Crossroads A point at which a crucial decision must be made
Cultural mosaic People with different culture live together
Domino effect A cumulative effect produced due to chain of similar events
 

Don’t judge a book by its cover

Do not prejudge the value of something
Duck trick Deliberately play a trick lower than the opponent, To move swiftly to escape
Elephant in the room An obvious truth going unnoticed, An obvious problem that people do not want to discuss about
Flagship The chief one of any group, An organization which is a leader in producing best product
Fork in the road To make a difficult decision about something like deciding for choice of university for further studies
Give someone a hand To help somebody
Grey area An area lacking clearly defined characteristics, A problem nobody know how to deal with as there are no clear rules
Ground zero A point on the surface of earth directly above or below of nuclear explosion
Hobson’s choice Free choice when there is no real alternative
Inverted pyramid To illustrate about the priority and structure of any report in text
Jumping the gun To start before the starting signal, To do something too soon
 
Left high and dry Left helpless, Being in an abandoned position
Letting the cat out of the bag To reveal a secret without intending to
Loaded to the gunwales Under the influence of one or a variety of substance
Melting pot A place where different types of people live together and later form one community, A pot in which metals are melted and mixed
Mother lode Principle zone of gold or silver ore, Origin of something valuable in great abundance.
Nail one’s colours to the mast State your opinion clearly about a subject
On one’s beam ends In a bad situation
Ostrich effect Avoiding a risky financial situation by pretending it does not exist
Plain sailing Easy and smooth progress in an activity
Rosetta Stone The breakthrough that provides crucial knowledge for solving a problem
Silver bullet Something that immediately solves a crucial problem
Slippery slope An action which leads to bad situation or disaster
Snowball effect Something which starts small and get bigger and bigger very fast
Soapbox A situation in which one express strong opinions about a specific topic
Spherical cow Simplified scientific models of real life phenomena
Spill the beans To reveal the secret
Taken aback Surprised, Shocked
To the bitter end Till the end of any work or process (Nothing to do with bitterness)
Turtles all the way down When your own logic begins to fail for any argument
Unmoored To loose from anchorage, To release from
Weathering a storm Successfully deal with a critical and difficult situation or problem
Whipping boy A scapegoat, A person who has been punished for somebody else’s faults
White elephant An expensive possession that is useless and difficult to maintain
With flying colours Excellently, With great success
Wooden face With no interest in another’s talk
You have two cows To demonstrate how any systems functions for currency, capital, means of production and property

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