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You are here: Home / Learning / Some common idiomatic expressions

Some common idiomatic expressions

May 3, 2016 - pdf

Idioms are a wonderful aspect of the English language. Your language skills will improve considerably if you learn the correct use of common idioms.

Here are some common idiomatic expressions in English.

To vanish into thin air

If something vanishes into thin air, it disappears entirely.

  • The police constable was confused, for the thief seemed to have vanished into thin air.

All at once

If something happens all at once, it happens suddenly and unexpectedly.

  • All at once, it started raining.

The apple of one’s eye

If something is the apple of your eye, it is extremely precious to you.

  • She was the apple of her father’s eye.

In apple-pie order

If something is in apple-pie order, it is perfectly arranged and tidy.

  • She always keeps her house in apple-pie order.

Once in a blue moon

If something happens once in a blue moon, it happens very rarely.

  • I visit my grandparents once in a blue moon.

By a hair’s breadth

If you miss something by a hair’s breadth, you miss it narrowly.

  • The huge boulder missed us by a hair’s breadth.

To break one’s word

To break one’s word is to fail to do what one has promised.

  • He broke his word and sided with my arch enemy.

To bury the hatchet

To bury the hatchet is to forget past differences and to become friends again.

  • The two warring nations finally decided to bury the hatchet.
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