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.
Detailed notes
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).
Traps to avoid
- Pull someone's leg is playful teasing, not hurting someone.
- Cold shoulder is not an illness.
- Smell a rat (suspect) is not the rat race (tough competition).
- Heart in one's mouth is fear, not love.
- Wash one's hands of means refusing further responsibility, not cleanliness.
Quick revision
- 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).
Types of questions asked
Every way this subtopic shows up in exams — how to recognise it, the formula or logic to use, and a solved example.
Type 1: Meaning of an animal idiomvery common3 practice Q
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.
Example: Meaning of Hold your horses: (a) to ride carefully (b) to wait and be patient (c) to own many animals (d) to hurry up
Horses = hurry; holding them back = slowing down. Answer: (b) to wait and be patient. 'Hurry up' is the opposite.
Type 2: Meaning of a body-part idiomvery common2 practice Q
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.
Example: Meaning of To lend a hand: (a) to give a loan (b) to help (c) to shake hands (d) to hurt someone
Hand = help. Lending it = giving help. Answer: (b) to help.
Type 3: Animal or body idiom inside a sentencecommon2 practice Q
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.
Example: When the results were announced, my heart was in my mouth. The idiom means:
Waiting for results → tension. Heart = feeling. Answer: I was very nervous.
Type 4: Choose the idiom for a given meaningcommon2 practice Q
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.
Example: 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
Foot down = firmness. Answer: (a) to put one's foot down. 'Best foot forward' = try one's best; 'cold feet' = lose courage.
Shortcut tricks
⚡ Animal-character match
Recall each animal's stock character (rat = cheat, wolf = hunger, bull = force). The idiom's meaning is the animal's character plus the verb.
⚡ Body-function match
Ear = listen, eye = watch, foot = stand firm, hand = help/work. Map the named part to its function before reading options.
⚡ Opaque-idiom cards
Ten idioms have lost their logic (bite the dust, cold shoulder, red tape). Card them separately — they are the only real memory load.
Where students lose marks
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.
Practice sets — 14 questions
Sets of 10, mixed across the question types above. Each answer comes with a step-by-step explanation.
Topic test · 10 questions
Suggested time 4 min · wrong answers go to your mistake notebook automatically.