Idioms & Phrases
🔒 Log in to trackOne idiom per shift, four meanings, and the literal option always planted as bait. Idioms are frozen pictures — animals, body parts, colours, food — and every bank below decodes them into families so that even a half-remembered idiom yields its meaning. 130+ idioms with meanings written for daily 15-minute banking.
One page per subtopic: detailed notes, every question type, formulas, tricks and practice sets.
Every formula on one printable page, grouped by subtopic.
3 exam-level questions worked step by step.
83 questions — untimed practice or a timed test with analysis.
Track record in the exam
Questions per shift in recent SSC CGL papers.
Test difficulty mix (83 questions)
Question patterns exams keep repeating
Taken from previous-year papers. If a pattern is marked "very common", expect to see it in your exam.
Meaning of a common idiom
very commonOne idiom is given on its own and you must choose its meaning from four options. At least one option simply repeats the idiom's words.
How to solve: Cross out every literal option first. Then ask what the picture in the idiom stands for and choose that meaning. Put your answer back into a short sentence to check that it reads naturally.
Example: Select the most appropriate meaning of the idiom: To throw in the towel
A towel thrown into a boxing ring stops the fight → to admit defeat and give up. 'Clean up after a game' is the literal decoy.
Idiom used inside a sentence
commonThe idiom is printed in bold inside a sentence, and the options are possible meanings.
How to solve: Decide from the sentence whether the situation is good or bad news. Remove options with the wrong tone, then test the survivors in place of the idiom.
Example: The minister's promise ended in smoke. Meaning?
A promise that ends in smoke disappears → came to nothing.
Animal and body-part idioms
very commonThe idiom contains an animal (bull, rat, crocodile, wolf) or a body part (ear, eye, neck, feet, hand).
How to solve: Use the animal's fixed character (crocodile = fake, bull = bold) or the body part's job (ear = listen, neck = risk). This decodes most such idioms even if you only half remember them.
Example: Meaning of Crocodile tears
Crocodile = fake → pretended sorrow.
Colour and food idioms, including look-alike twins
commonA colour (red, blue, green, white, black) or a food (cake, nut, potato, apple) appears in the idiom; often one option is the meaning of a twin idiom.
How to solve: Recall the colour's feeling or the food's judgement. Watch the three reds: see red (angry), red tape (official delay), red-letter day (happy day). Cross out the twin idiom's meaning.
Example: Meaning of Red tape
Too many official rules causing delay. 'A memorable day' is the twin (red-letter day).
Fill in the blank with an idiom
commonA sentence has a blank and the four options are idioms.
How to solve: Name what the sentence needs (running away, a lower role, a small fuss, a joyful day). Choose the idiom from that family and read the sentence again to check grammar.
Example: Seeing the police, the pickpocket ___. (took to his heels / broke the ice / kept his chin up / turned a deaf ear)
The thief escapes → took to his heels.
Idioms from stories and legends
occasionalA name or story object appears: Achilles, Pandora, Hercules, Midas, a Trojan horse, belling the cat.
How to solve: Recall the one-line story and turn its key point into a general meaning. Options that retell the story literally are wrong.
Example: Meaning of Achilles' heel
The hero could be wounded only at his heel → a weak point in a strong person or system.
Replace the phrase with an idiom
commonWords in a sentence are in bold; the options are idioms that might replace them.
How to solve: Restate the bold words in two or three plain words, then pick the idiom that has exactly that meaning. The other options are real idioms with different meanings.
Example: The workers were dismissed from their jobs.
Dismissed → got the sack.
Complete the idiom / opposite of an idiom
occasionalEither one word of a fixed idiom is missing, or the stem asks for the option opposite in meaning.
How to solve: Idioms are frozen, so only the original word completes them (a spade a spade). For opposites, write the meaning first, then reverse it; the option that repeats the meaning is the trap.
Example: Opposite of To keep one's chin up
Meaning = stay cheerful; opposite = to lose heart.
Phrasal verbs: meaning and particle
commonA verb with a particle (call off, put up with, give up) is asked for meaning, or a blank follows a verb and the options are up/off/out/down/in.
How to solve: Use the particle's idea: off = cancel/stop, out = finish/remove, down = refuse/fail, after = care/resemble, into = investigate. Test each option in the sentence.
Example: Our car broke ___ on the highway.
Machines stop working → down.