Idioms & Phrases
🔒 Log in to trackExam strategy: banking 300 idioms in 30 days
🔒 Log in to trackTier 1 carries exactly one idiom item in most shifts; Tier 2 occasionally uses idioms inside cloze and RC. The topic is pure bank-and-recall, and a 300-idiom working bank covers years of papers.
The 30-day plan:
- Days 1–10: 10 new idioms a day from the banks in this topic, each used in one sentence of your own. Sentence-production is what survives exam pressure; recognition alone melts.
- Days 11–20: 10 new + 15 old daily. Group by family (animals, colours, situations) — clusters recall better than alphabetical lists.
- Days 21–30: 10 new + 25 old + one 20-item mixed self-test. Anything failed twice goes onto a separate 'bleeder list' of 15–20 items that gets one extra revision weekly.
In the exam: 20 seconds. Kill literal options, translate the picture, plug back. If unknown, judge polarity (does it sound positive?) and pick the same-polarity option — instinct on familiar-sounding idioms is right far more than chance.
Total time budget for the whole topic: about 5 hours spread over a month — the best time-to-mark ratio in the English section, provided sentences are produced and the bleeder list exists. Do not chase exhaustive dictionaries; the SSC idiom pool is surprisingly small and heavily recycled.
How idioms appear in the paper
Idioms are a small but steady part of the English section. Most papers ask one or two direct idiom questions. Idioms also hide inside cloze tests, sentence improvement and fill-in-the-blank items. The pool of idioms examiners use is small and repeats often, so a well-built list of about 300 idioms covers most of what you will see.
The different formats
- Meaning of the idiom — one idiom, four meanings. The most common.
- Replace the phrase — a sentence has a plain phrase underlined; you choose the idiom that can replace it. 'They are in bitter open hostility' → 'They are at daggers drawn'.
- Complete the idiom — one word of a fixed idiom is missing: calls a spade a ___. Idioms are frozen, so only the original word is correct. 'A spade a shovel' is simply wrong.
- Opposite meaning — choose the option opposite to the idiom's meaning. First find the meaning, then find its opposite. The option that gives the same meaning is the trap.
- Idiom inside a passage — the context gives it away.
Idioms are frozen
You cannot change the words of an idiom. A hard nut to crack, never a hard nut to break. Every cloud has a silver lining, never a golden lining. This is why the 'complete the idiom' type has only one defensible answer. When you learn an idiom, learn its exact words.
A 30-day plan
- Days 1–10: learn 10 new idioms a day. For each, make one sentence about your own life: I burnt the midnight oil before my mock test.
- Days 11–20: 10 new + revise 15 old each day. Revise by family (animals, body, colours, food, situations, people).
- Days 21–30: 10 new + revise 25 old + a 20-question self-test. Any idiom you get wrong twice goes on a short weak list. Revise that list every week.
Your own sentence is what you remember in the exam. Reading a list alone fades fast.
In the exam hall (20 seconds per idiom)
- Kill the literal option.
- Find the picture and the family.
- Check the tone: positive or negative?
- Plug the answer back into a sentence.
If you do not know the idiom at all, judge its tone from the key words and pick the option with the same tone. This beats a blind guess.
Opposite-meaning questions
Write the meaning in two words first. Keep one's chin up = stay cheerful. Now the opposite is lose heart. The option that says 'stay brave' has the same meaning and is the planted trap.
Question types you will see
Each type: how to recognise it, the method step by step, and one question to try.
Complete the idiom (missing word)
An idiom appears with one word blanked, and the options are four similar words (spade/shovel, pie/pot).
Recall the idiom in its exact frozen form.
Say it aloud with each option; only the original sounds right.
Do not pick a 'logical' synonym — idioms do not allow them.
Why it works: an idiom is a fixed chain of words, so any substitute breaks it.
Complete the idiom: Every cloud has a silver ___. (a) lining (b) border (c) colour (d) edge
Show solutionHide solution
The fixed form is every cloud has a silver lining = there is some good in every bad situation. Answer: (a) lining.
Replace the underlined phrase with an idiom
A sentence has a plain-English phrase in bold or underlined; the options are idioms that could replace it.
Restate the bold phrase in two or three words.
Find the option idiom with exactly that meaning.
Re-read the sentence with the idiom to check grammar.
Why it works: only one option's meaning matches the phrase; the others are real idioms with different meanings.
Replace the bold part: The workers were dismissed from their jobs last week. (a) got the sack (b) got cold feet (c) turned the tables (d) broke the ice
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Dismissed = lost their jobs → (a) got the sack.
Mixed-bank idiom meaning (tone check)
A less familiar idiom from any family, with options of different tones.
Kill literal options.
Judge the idiom's tone from its key word (upper = advantage, dogs = ruin).
Pick the option with the same tone and a sensible picture.
Why it works: even when memory fails, tone plus picture usually leaves one option.
Meaning of To be in the same boat: (a) to travel together (b) to face the same difficulty (c) to be close friends (d) to share money
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Everyone in one boat sinks or floats together → shared trouble. Answer: (b).
Opposite in meaning to an idiom
The stem asks for the option OPPOSITE in meaning to the idiom.
Write the idiom's meaning in two words.
Reverse it.
Choose that option; reject the option that repeats the meaning.
Why it works: the planted trap is the synonym of the idiom's meaning.
Opposite in meaning to To be on cloud nine: (a) to be very happy (b) to be very sad (c) to fly high (d) to be very busy
Show solutionHide solution
Cloud nine = very happy; opposite = (b) to be very sad. (a) is the same meaning, the trap.
Shortcuts that save time
For every idiom, speak a sentence about your own life ('I burned the midnight oil before my SSC mock'). Personal sentences are recalled under pressure; list-readings are not.
Revise by bank (animals → body → colours → food → situations → people). Each bank is one mental room; in the exam you 'enter the room' and the members appear.
Fail an idiom twice in self-tests? It goes to a 15-item list revised weekly. Most permanent marks come from this list, not from new words.
Mistakes to avoid
Where most students lose marks on this subtopic.
Learning idioms as word-pairs without ever producing a sentence.
Revising alphabetically; families and pairs are the recall units.
Chasing rare literary idioms — SSC recycles a small common pool.
Ignoring tone: options often mix one positive and three negative meanings, or vice versa.
Quick revision
Read this the night before the exam.
10 new idioms a day, one own sentence each, weekly weak list.
Idioms are frozen: never accept a changed word.
Practice: 12 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Every answer has a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 12 questions
Suggested time 5 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.