Metaphors – I L L N E S S / H E A L T H

Illness is down / Health is up

(illness) strike / cut (us) down

Get back on (our) feet

Laid low

To be in declining health

To be on last legs

To be pushing up the daisies

To be six feet under

To be under the water

To be up and again

To come / go down with something

To fall ill

To feel below par / above par

To feel down

To feel low

To feel on the top of the world

To go down / fall / drop like flies

To kneel over (a disease)

To pick up (= to get an illness)

To sink fast (about a patient whose condition is getting worse)

 Illness is war

An outbreak of (cholera)

Attack of (asthma)

Defence (something in your body to prevent you from becoming ill; new drugs that work by
stenghtening the body’s own defences)

Fighting fit

To be riddled (with cancer)

To be riddled with cancer

To die after a long fight

To fight for one’s life

To fight for breath (almost unable to breath)

To fight off (if your body fights off an illness, it prevents the illness from making you ill)

To lost battle against the cancer

Illness is monochrome / Health is colourful

As pale as a sheet
Glowing with health
To be as fresh as daisy
To be discoloured (about sick person)
To be in the pink
To be off-colour / To feel off colour / To look off colour (about sick person)
To be washed out (about sick person)
To have a healthy bloom
To have rosy cheeks