Have you ever wondered why we ride shotgun or bite the bullet? Find out with this explanation of the origins of 20 common English idioms!

1. 20 ENGLISH
IDIOMS WITH
SURPRISING
ORIGINS
20 ENGLISH
IDIOMS WITH
SURPRISING
ORIGINS

2. An idiom is a figure of speech that has
become fixed in a language. Usually, an
idiom is figurative in modern contexts
but once had a literal meaning. These
literal meanings, or idiom origins, can
help a learner of English understand
where a phrase originated.
What is an
Idiom?

3. Straight from the horse’s mouth1.
Meaning: getting information directly from the most reliable source
Origin: This one is said to come from the 1900s, when buyers could
determine a horse’s age by examining its teeth. It’s also why you shouldn’t
“look a gift horse in the mouth,” as inspecting a gift is considered bad
etiquette.

4. Let the cat
out of the bag
2.
Meaning: to mistakenly
reveal a secret
Origin: Up to and including
in the 1700s, a common
street fraud included
replacing valuable pigs with
less valuable cats and
selling them in bags. When
a cat was let out of a bag,
the jig was up.

5. Butter
someone up
3.
Meaning: to praise or
flatter someone, usually
to gain a favor
Origin: A customary
religious act in ancient
India included
throwing butter balls at
the statues of gods to
seek good fortune and
their favor.

6. Pulling someone’s leg
Meaning: teasing someone, usually by lying in a joking manner
Origin: Although pulling someone’s leg is all in good fun nowadays,
it originally described the way in which thieves tripped their victims
to rob them.
4.

7. Wolf in sheep’s
clothing
5.
Meaning: someone who is
pretending to be something they
are not, usually to the detriment
of others
Origin: This one’s attributed to
the Bible (Matthew 7:15). The
Bible also gave us “rise and
shine” (Isaiah 60:1), “seeing eye to
eye” (Isaiah 62:8), and “broken
heart” (Psalm 69:20).

8. Hands down6.
Meaning: without a lot of
effort; by far
Origin: Winning “hands
down” once referred to
19th-century horseracing,
when a jockey could
remove his hands from
the reins and still win the
race because he was so
far ahead.

9. Riding shotgun
7.
7.
Meaning: riding in the
front seat of a vehicle next
to the driver
Origin: In the Wild West,
the person who sat next to
the driver was often
equipped with a shotgun
to kill any robbers that
might happen upon the
coach.

10. 8. Barking up the wrong tree
Meaning: pursuing a misguided course of action
Origin: Likely referring to hunting, this saying explains when a
dog would literally bark at the bottom of the wrong tree after
the prey in question moved to the next branch.

11. Flying off the
handle
Meaning: suddenly becoming
enraged
Origin: This one is said to come
from poorly made axes of the 1800s
that would literally detach from the
handle. Yikes!
9.

12. Cost an arm and
a leg
10.
Meaning: extremely
expensive
Origin: The story goes that this
phrase originated from 18th-
century paintings, as famous
people like George
Washington would have their
portraits done without certain
limbs showing. Having limbs
showing is said to have cost
more.

13. Sleep tight11.
Meaning: used to tell someone to sleep well
Origin: One possible origin of this phrase dates back to when
mattresses were supported by ropes; sleeping tight meant sleeping
with the ropes pulled tight, which would provide a well-sprung bed.

14. Bite the bullet12.
Meaning: to perform a painful
task or endure an unpleasant
situation
Origin: In the 1800s, patients
would literally bite on a bullet to
cope with the pain of having
surgery before anesthesia was
common.

15. Meaning: look for avoidable errors so you don’t remove something good
with the bad
Origin: This idiom allegedly comes from a time when the household
bathed in the same water; first, the lord would bathe, then the men, the
lady, the women, the children, and the babies last. The bath water is said
to have been so dirty that there was a risk of throwing the baby out with
the water once everyone was done bathing!
13.
Don’t throw the baby out with the
bath water
Don’t throw the baby out with the
bath water

16. Meaning: the moment when a
form of entertainment reaches a
decline in quality by including
gimmicks to maintain interest
Jump the shark14.
Origin: In the show Happy Days,
the character Fonzie literally
jumps over a shark while water
skiing; afterward, radio personality
Jon Hein popularized the phrase
“jump the shark” to describe the
decline of the show.

17. Minding your
Ps and Qs
15.
Meaning: being on your
best behavior
Origin: There are many
origin stories for this one,
but perhaps the one that is
most fun is that bartenders
would keep track of the
pints and quarts consumed
by their patrons with the
letters “P” and “Q.”

18. Turn a blind
eye
16.
Meaning: to consciously
ignore unwanted information
Origin: The phrase “to turn a
blind eye” is said to originate
with Admiral Horatio Nelson,
who allegedly looked through
his telescope using his blind
eye to avoid signals from his
superior telling him to
withdraw from battle.

19. Armed to the
teeth
17.
Meaning: to be extremely
well equipped
Origin: The idea behind
being “armed to the teeth”
is that the weapon wielder
would carry the maximum
number of weapons, so
many that he or she would
be forced to carry some
between his or her teeth.

20. Get one’s goat
Meaning: to irritate or annoy
someone
Origin: This one also comes
from horseracing. Jockeys
placed goats in the stables
with their horses as this was
said to relax the horses.
However, competitors would
remove the goats of their rivals
to spook their competitors’
horses, hoping they would
consequently lose the race.
18.

21. Pull out all the stops
Meaning: to do everything you can to make something successful
Origin: Alluding to the piano-like instrument the organ, this phrase
refers to when the stops are pulled out to turn on all the sounds in
an organ, allowing it to play all the sounds at once and, therefore,
be as loud as possible.
19.

22. Dish fit for
the gods
20.
Meaning: a very scrumptious
or delectable meal
Origin: We can thank
Shakespeare for this
expression (found in "Julius
Caesar"), but we can also thank
him for “foaming at the mouth”
("Julius Caesar"), “hot blooded”
("The Merry Wives of
Windsor"), “wearing your heart
on your sleeve” ("Othello"), and
“one fell swoop” ("Macbeth").

23. Thank You!
Do you know of any
idioms in other
languages that you
think are interesting or
funny? Share them with
us on Facebook or
Twitter!

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