Idiomatic Expressions Worksheet

Idioms are spoken or written sentences where the meaning is not obvious from the individual words used. Exercise A: Match the idioms with the meaning keywords on the right: Shes dead two-faced. Celebrate. Can you keep it under your hat, please? Really happy. I was walking on air! Cant be trusted. He was between a rock and a hard place. Tough decision. My sisters goldfish has just kicked the bucket. Too old. Were going to paint the town red! Privileged. Looks like your eyes are bigger than your belly. Dear departed. Ive got a few irons in the fire. Greedy. Hes over the hill. Options. Secret. Tina was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Exercise B: Match the idioms with the meaning keywords on the right: 1. Ive got butterflies in my stomach. 2. He was up a creek without a paddle. Arrogant. Speak plainly. 3. Dont beat about the bush. More troubles ahead. 4. She was driving him up the wall! The worst is behind us. 5. Were not out of the woods yet. Very annoying. 6. I thought my mum was going to hit the ceiling. Nervous. 7. Shes a bit stuck up. Done something wrong. 8. I gave him the cold shoulder. In trouble. 9. Its all plain sailing from here. Dissatisfied. 10. The grass is always greener on the other side. Not speaking. Exercise C: Complete the gaps below with the following parts of the body: lip bottom heels arm heart mind eye chest finger leg stomach back nose foot hip palm mouth head knees cheek eye hand neck 1. Theyre ____ over ____ in love. 2. Do you ____ if I dont come to the gym with you? 3. My friends dont always see ____ to ____. 4. She loves sticking her ____ into other peoples business. 5. I cant believe you didnt pay! Youve got a real ____. 6. We sailed as far as the ____ of the Amazon. 7. He was only paying ____ service to your idea. 8. Im going to stick my ____ out and say that Arsenal will lose. 9. Rude people really put my ____ up. 10. She has put her ____ and soul into these paintings. 11. I bought a new ____ of drawers at IKEA yesterday. 12. The film was so revolting. I couldnt ____ it. 13. It cost him an ____ and a ____. 14. Can you give me a ____ with the hoovering, please? 15. Jay had the audience in the ____ of his hand. 16. Dont point the ____ at me. I didnt eat your cream cake! 17. Not many people have heard of this band. Theyre still quite ____. 18. How bad is it? Whats the ____ line? 19. Do you fancy a good ____-up on New Years Eve? 20. If I have to book a hotel, will the company ___ the bill?

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Exercise D: Complete the gaps below with the following parts of the body: tooth shoulder pupils throat skin thumb toes arms blood brow chin face appendix body leg hair belly lungs ribs vein 1. Thats a very impressive ____ of work, Mr. Picasso. 2. The rest of the book continues in a similar ____. 3. Theres definitely bad ____ between those two. They cant stand each other! 4. The row I had with my brother upset me a lot. Hes really got under my ____. 5. Riding the roller coaster was quite a ____-raising experience! 6. I didnt enjoy the concert. It was too high____ for my taste. 7. Did you hear the one about the cross-eyed teacher? He couldnt control his ____. 8. Josie loves chocolate. Shes always had a sweet ___. 9. You will have to ____ facts sooner or later: Milos never coming back. 10. Stop complaining. Life isnt fair. You should take it on the ____. 11. I dont like it when people try to shove their opinions down my ____. 12. Dont worry about telling the boss. Ill help to ____ the blame. 13. We had spare ____ for dinner last night. Delicious! 14. At the concert we were screaming at the top of our__! 15. I had a bad feeling about this project. I knew it would go ____ up. 16. If you look at the back of the book, youll find the index and the____. 17. The whole village is up in ____ about the new wheelie bins! 18. My cousin is a control freak. Shes got her husband completely under her ____. 19. Olly got pretty drunk at the works party last week. He ended up ____less. 20. My son is such a rebel at school. He never __the line.