Betty Kirkpatrick 
Modern English Idioms 

An idiom is a phrase whose wording is either wholly or partly fixed and which cannot be understood simply from taking the literal meanings of the individual words which make up the phrase. Thus, idiomatically, if you kill two birds with one stone it does not mean that you are going around murdering birds, but that you are achieving two aims with one action.

The English language is particularly rich in idioms and they are an aspect of English which learners of the language find particularly difficult.

This book features many well-known and used idioms in the English language today, from the acid test and a chip off the old block, through sing from the same hymn sheet to zero hour.

Arranged in dictionary format, the idioms featured here are all given clear explanations and are accompanied by example sentences to show how they are used. Also included are the origins of some of the idioms and readers are likely to find many of these unusual and fascinating.

As well as being a source of useful information and language help, this book is fun to browse through.