Examples
The following sentences contain idioms. The fixed words constituting the idiom in each case are bolded:
-
- a. She is pulling my leg.
-
- b. He took me to the cleaners.
-
- c. When will you drop them a line?
-
- d. You should keep an eye out for that.
-
- e. I can't keep my head above water.
Each of the word combinations in bold has at least two meanings: a literal meaning and a figurative meaning. Pulling someone's leg means either that you literally grab their leg and yank it, or figuratively, it means that you tease them by telling them a fictitious story. Such expressions that are typical for a language can appear as words, combinations of words, phrases, entire clauses, and entire sentences. Idiomatic expressions in the form of entire sentences are called proverbs, if they refer to a universal truth e.g.
-
- f. The devil is in the details.
-
- g. The early bird gets the worm.
-
- h. Break a leg.
-
- i. Waste not, want not.
Proverbs such as these have figurative meaning. When one says "The devil is in the details", one is not expressing a belief in demons, but rather one means that things may look good on the surface, but upon scrutiny, problems are revealed.
Read more about this topic: Idiom
Famous quotes containing the word examples:
“There are many examples of women that have excelled in learning, and even in war, but this is no reason we should bring ‘em all up to Latin and Greek or else military discipline, instead of needle-work and housewifry.”
—Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733)
“It is hardly to be believed how spiritual reflections when mixed with a little physics can hold people’s attention and give them a livelier idea of God than do the often ill-applied examples of his wrath.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“In the examples that I here bring in of what I have [read], heard, done or said, I have refrained from daring to alter even the smallest and most indifferent circumstances. My conscience falsifies not an iota; for my knowledge I cannot answer.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)