A Comprehensive Guide to English Idioms and Vocabulary
Adjectives
Accessible: Something that can be easily reached/obtained.
Accurate: Precise/correct.
Apologetic: To say or show you are sorry for doing something.
Arguable: Opposite of watertight. Debatable, may be questioned.
Argumentative: Quarrelsome. Always ready to disagree.
Coherent: Well planned, clear, and sensible (coherence).
Decisive: Able to make quick decisions in a difficult situation (decisiveness).
Discreet: Careful in order to avoid embarrassing or offending someone (discretion).
Excessive: More or higher than is necessary or reasonable.
Knowledgeable: Well-informed.
Legible: Clear enough to read (legibility).
Logical: Reasonable/sensible (logic).
Loyal: (Staunch) faithful (loyalty).
Normal: Usual/ordinary (normality).
Obedient: Someone who does what they are told to do (obedience).
Official: (Checked) approved by someone in authority.
Orthodox: Accepted or used by most people (orthodoxy).
Plausible: Likely to be true, valid (plausibility).
Polite: With good manners, courteous (politeness).
Practical: Down-to-earth, effective/likely to be successful (practicality).
Precise: Exact (precision).
Preferential Treatment: To be treated better than other people.
Replaceable: Disposable.
Responsible: Behaving sensibly and properly (responsibility).
Ripe: (Nature) fully grown, ready to eat (ripeness).
Scrupulous: Ethical, moral, someone who takes great care to do what is fair, honest, or morally right (scruples).
Idioms and Phrases
General Idioms
To arrive/turn up/leave in dribs and drabs: To (etc.) in small numbers/quantities and at irregular intervals.
Bright and early: Very early in the morning (to wake up/get up).
By and large: Generally.
To be few and far between: Not to be very common: to be very difficult to find.
To grin and bear it: To accept an unpleasant situation without complaining.
Ins and outs: The details of a complicated situation/problem/system/proposal.
To make a song and dance about: To complain too much about something, in a way that seems unnecessary.
Odds and ends: Small unimportant objects.
Once and for all: Definitely and finally so that you end all doubt and uncertainty.
One’s own flesh and blood: A relative.
An out and out lie: A complete lie (blatant lie).
To be part and parcel of: A basic and fundamental part of.
Peace and quiet: Calm and tranquility.
Pride and joy: Something/someone that a person is very proud of and which/who is very important to them.
Prim and proper: Very conservative and easily offended (correct).
Pushing and shoving: Pushing (packed with people).
Safe and sound: Safe and unharmed.
Spick and span: Very clean.
Touch and go: Doubtful, uncertain.
Up and coming: Someone who shows a lot of promise and will probably be very successful in the future.
To have ups and downs: To have good times and bad times.
Wear and tear: (Continuous use) damage caused to furniture/clothes/equipment, by daily use.
Well and truly: Completely (usually with lost and beaten).
To win fair and square: (Justly) to win fairly.
Anger and Annoyance
A blazing row: An argument in which people are very angry and emotional.
To blow your top: To lose your temper and become very angry.
To be cross: To be a little angry (with children).
To be crotchety: Bad-tempered and easily made angry.
To drive someone up the wall: To annoy someone.
Furious: Very angry.
Galling: Something that is annoying because it seems unfair or wrong.
To get on someone’s nerves: To annoy someone.
A heated argument: A bad argument in which people are very angry.
To hit the roof: To lose your temper and become very angry.
To be indignant: To be very angry because you think something is wrong or unfair.
Infuriate: Make angry.
Irate: Very angry.
To irritate: To annoy.
To be livid: To be very angry.
To be in no mood to: To be angry and don’t want to.
An outburst: A sudden explosion of anger.
A quick temper: To lose your temper quickly and very easily.
To be sick and tired of something/someone: To be annoyed and fed up with something/someone.
To throw a tantrum: To start kicking, crying, and shouting.
To be touchy: To be bad-tempered and easily made angry.
To be up in arms about something: To be very angry and ready to protest.
Animal Idioms
The black sheep of the family: Someone considered to be a failure/an embarrassment by relatives.
To be as blind as a bat: To have poor eyesight.
You can ask till the cows come home, but it won’t…: You can do something for a very long time, but it won’t change anything.
A dark horse: Someone who people know very little about.
To be dogged by something: Something bad keeps causing you trouble and it will not go away.
For donkey’s years: For a very long time.
To duck: To avoid something which is going to hit you by lowering your head.
It is like water off a duck’s back: Something does not affect you because you are accustomed to it.
Fishy: Suspicious.
To hound someone: To persistently follow someone.
The lion’s share: The biggest part.
To rabbit on: To talk for a long time in a boring way.
Ratty: Bad-tempered/easily made angry.
To have a whale of a time: To really enjoy yourself.
A wild goose chase: A search for something that one is unlikely to find.
To work your way out of something: To avoid doing something you do not want to do.
Connecting Ideas in Arguments
According to someone/something: This is what someone/something…says.
(By) far and away: Used in superlative sentences for emphasis.
Consequently: As a result of this.
For instance: For example.
Given: When you consider/think about.
Granted (that)/admittedly: Used to accept that what the person one is arguing against says, is true. Agree with a person.
In accordance: Conforming to.
In addition to: And (followed by -ing).
In all: In total.
In case: Because someone/something might happen.
In comparison with: Compared with.
In opposition: Opposing, on the other side.
In order to: So as to.
In the event of: = In case of (formal) if something occurs; for possible future happening.
In (the) light of something: (Considering) taking something into consideration.
Key: The most important.
Largely: Mostly.
Much as: Even though; typically used with appreciate/sympathize and verbs of liking and disliking.
Nor: Not…either.
Notwithstanding: Despite.
On top of: In addition to.
Particularly: Especially.
While: Whereas, although.