Idioms & Phrases
🔒 Log in to trackAnimal and body-part idioms
🔒 Log in to trackSSC's favourite idiom reservoirs are animals and body parts. The animal usually supplies the character and the body part supplies the function — decode along those lines.
Body-part idioms
| Idiom | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Turn a deaf ear | refuse to listen deliberately |
| Pull someone's leg | tease or joke with someone playfully |
| Keep an eye on | watch something carefully |
| See eye to eye | agree fully with someone |
| Pay through the nose | pay far more than a fair price |
| Cost an arm and a leg | be extremely expensive |
| Give the cold shoulder | treat someone with deliberate unfriendliness |
| Bite the dust | be defeated or fail completely |
| Bury the hatchet | end a quarrel and make peace |
| Get cold feet | lose courage at the last moment |
| Stick your neck out | risk criticism by speaking or acting boldly |
| Wash your hands of | refuse any further responsibility for a matter |
| Heart in your mouth | extremely nervous or frightened |
| Lend a hand | give help |
| Keep at arm's length | avoid becoming friendly or intimate with |
| Have your hands full | be extremely busy with work |
| Follow in someone's footsteps | carry on the work or path of an elder |
| Put your foot down | take a firm, unyielding stand |
Animal logic: the bull (charge head-on), rat (sneaky wrongdoing), cat (hidden, escapes), horse (speed/impulse — hold your horses), wolf (hunger/predation — keep the wolf from the door), sheep (harmless disguise), lion (share/size), goose (futility — wild-goose chase), crocodile (fake tears).
Body-part logic: ear → listening (turn a deaf ear), eye → watching/agreement (see eye to eye), leg → playful force (pull one's leg), shoulder → reception (cold shoulder), neck → risk (stick your neck out), feet → nerve (get cold feet), heart → courage/nervousness, hand → help (lend a hand), foot → firmness (put your foot down).
Most animal/body idioms are transparent under this logic — even a half-remembered idiom yields to the picture. The handful of opaque ones (bite the dust, cold shoulder, crocodile tears) deserve one flash card each.
Why animals and body parts
A large share of the idioms asked in competitive exams use an animal or a part of the body. This is good news: each animal and each body part has a fixed 'character', so you can often work out the meaning even if you half-remember the idiom.
Animal characters
| Animal | Stands for | Example idiom | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| bull | facing force head-on | take the bull by the horns | face a problem boldly |
| rat | cheating, trickery | smell a rat | suspect something wrong |
| crocodile | false tears | crocodile tears | pretended sorrow |
| horse | speed, hurry | hold your horses | wait, be patient |
| wolf | hunger, danger | keep the wolf from the door | avoid starving |
| birds | targets | kill two birds with one stone | get two results from one action |
| lion | biggest, strongest | the lion's share | the largest part |
| goose | foolish effort | a wild-goose chase | a useless search |
Worked use: Crocodile tears. The old belief was that crocodiles 'cry' while eating. So the tears are not real → pretended sorrow.
Body-part functions
| Part | Function | Example idiom | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ear | listening | turn a deaf ear | refuse to listen |
| eye | watching, agreeing | see eye to eye | agree fully |
| nose | price paid | pay through the nose | pay far too much |
| shoulder | welcome | give the cold shoulder | treat coldly, ignore |
| neck | risk | stick one's neck out | take a risk by acting boldly |
| feet | courage | get cold feet | lose courage at the last moment |
| hand | help, work | lend a hand / have one's hands full | help / be very busy |
| foot | firmness | put one's foot down | take a firm stand |
| heart | fear, feeling | heart in one's mouth | very nervous |
Worked use: He stuck his neck out for his friend. Neck = risk. So he took a risk to support his friend.
Question types you will see
- Meaning of an animal idiom — use the animal's character.
- Meaning of a body idiom — use the body part's job.
- Idiom in a sentence — the sentence tells you if it is good or bad.
- Reverse type — a meaning is given; you choose the idiom. Here the wrong options are real idioms with other meanings, so you must know which idiom matches which job (hand = help, hands full = busy, wash hands = refuse duty).
Question types you will see
Each type: how to recognise it, the method step by step, and one question to try.
Meaning of an animal idiom
The idiom names an animal or bird: bull, rat, crocodile, wolf, horse, birds, goose, lion.
Recall the animal's stock character (bull = force, crocodile = fake, birds = targets).
Add the verb of the idiom to that character.
Choose the option that states the result in plain words.
Why it works: animal idioms are built on the same fixed characters again and again.
Meaning of Hold your horses: (a) to ride carefully (b) to wait and be patient (c) to own many animals (d) to hurry up
Show solutionHide solution
Horses = hurry; holding them back = slowing down. Answer: (b) to wait and be patient. 'Hurry up' is the opposite.
Meaning of a body-part idiom
The idiom names a body part: ear, eye, nose, shoulder, neck, feet, hand, heart.
Name the body part's job (ear = listen, hand = help).
Read the idiom's action on that job.
Reject options about injury or illness — they are literal.
Why it works: each body part keeps one job across most idioms.
Meaning of To lend a hand: (a) to give a loan (b) to help (c) to shake hands (d) to hurt someone
Show solutionHide solution
Hand = help. Lending it = giving help. Answer: (b) to help.
Animal or body idiom inside a sentence
A sentence contains the idiom; the question asks its meaning in context.
Decide from the sentence whether the idiom is positive or negative.
Apply the animal character or body function.
Put the answer back in the sentence to check.
Why it works: the context removes any option with the wrong tone.
When the results were announced, my heart was in my mouth. The idiom means:
Show solutionHide solution
Waiting for results → tension. Heart = feeling. Answer: I was very nervous.
Choose the idiom for a given meaning
The stem gives a meaning ('to be extremely busy') and the options are four idioms, usually from the same body part.
Recall the meaning of each option idiom quickly.
Match the exact meaning, not just the body part.
Beware of options using the same word with a different job.
Why it works: all four options are real idioms, so only exact knowledge separates them.
Select the idiom that means to take a firm stand: (a) to put one's foot down (b) to follow in someone's footsteps (c) to get cold feet (d) to put one's best foot forward
Show solutionHide solution
Foot down = firmness. Answer: (a) to put one's foot down. 'Best foot forward' = try one's best; 'cold feet' = lose courage.
Shortcuts that save time
Recall each animal's stock character (rat = cheat, wolf = hunger, bull = force). The idiom's meaning is the animal's character plus the verb.
Ear = listen, eye = watch, foot = stand firm, hand = help/work. Map the named part to its function before reading options.
Ten idioms have lost their logic (bite the dust, cold shoulder, red tape). Card them separately — they are the only real memory load.
Mistakes to avoid
Where most students lose marks on this subtopic.
Reading 'pull someone's leg' as causing injury — the tone is playful.
Taking 'cold shoulder' as an illness option planted in papers ('feel cold').
Mixing 'smell a rat' (suspect) with 'a rat race' (fierce competition).
Forgetting 'heart in your mouth' means fear, not surprise.
Quick revision
Read this the night before the exam.
Animal = character: bull (bold), rat (trick), crocodile (fake), wolf (hunger), horse (hurry).
Body = function: ear (listen), eye (agree/watch), neck (risk), feet (courage), hand (help/busy).
Reverse questions: match the meaning to the body part's job first.
Keep separate cards for idioms whose picture is hard to see (cold shoulder, crocodile tears).
Practice: 14 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Every answer has a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 10 questions
Suggested time 4 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.