English is Easy

Interesting Idioms - I

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Vocabulary - Idioms

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• Match the idioms with their meanings:

1. a bad apple/egg A. easy

2. a couch potato B. the necessities
3. a hard nut to crack C. doesn’t meet the required
standard
4. a piece of cake D. a bad influence/someone who
brings trouble
5. a smart cookie E. gone unexpectedly wrong
6. big cheese F. worth considering
7. bread and butter G. an idle person
8. doesn’t cut the mustard H. a difficult person to
understand /a difficult problem to solve
9. food for thought I. an important person
10. gone pear-shaped J. a clever person

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 1. Will-o-the-wisp

a) To cut in a childish way

b) Acting in a foolish way

c) To have desires un-backed by

effort

d) Anything which eludes or

deceives

e) Yearning of the spirit

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 1. Will-o-the-wisp
Anything which eludes or
deceives
The will-o'-the-wisp is a flame-like
phosphorescence caused by gases from
decaying plants in marshy areas

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 2. A snake in the grass

a) A recognizable enemy
b) Unforeseen happening
c) Very ferocious enemy
d) Unrecognisable danger
e) A reliable person

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 • 2. A snake in the grass

Unrecognisable danger

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 3. To look down one’s nose at

a) To show anger

b) To backbite

c) To insult in the presence of others

d) To regard with half-hidden

displeasure or contempt

e) None of the above

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 • 3. To look down one’s
nose at

To regard with half-

hidden displeasure or
contempt

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 4. Hobson’s choice

a) Excellent choice

b) No choice at all because there is

only one thing to take or not

c) Choice to live or die

d) Big man’s choice
e) First choice

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 4. Hobson’s choice
No choice at all because there is
only one thing to take or not

The phrase is said to have

originated with Thomas Hobson
(1544–1631), a livery stable
owner in Cambridge, England,
who offered customers the choice
of either taking the horse in his stall
nearest to the door or taking none
at all.

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5. To have a chip on one’s
shoulder

a) To be boastful
b) To be deserving of peace
c) To have treated unfairly
d) To have deep cut wound on the
shoulder
e) Signs on the shoulder showing
timidity

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• 5. To have a chip on one’s
shoulder
To have treated unfairly

The saying originated during

the 19th century in the United
States, where people wanting a
physical fight would carry a chip
of wood on their shoulder,
daring others to knock it off.

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 Thank You

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