Be on the wagon
Commitment to doing something (stop drinking alcohol)
Jump on the bandwagon
start to do something after it has become successful or popular
Fall off the wagon
Give up on a commitment (start drinking alcohol after giving up)
To hit the road;
leave one place to go to another
Be middle-of-the-road
Something that is not extreme
Be long way down the road.
be far in the future
To reinvent the wheel
To waste time trying to create something that has already been made
Be asleep at the wheel
to not be doing your job, or not taking responsibilities seriously
The wheels have come off.
When something goes wrong or fails
to stick out a mile
be very obvious and easy to see
To run a mile.
To not want to get involved with something
give someone an inch and they'll take a mile
to talk about someone who's been given a little bit of freedom then tries to take much more
Be In the driver's seat;
be in control of a situation or in charge of something
a backseat driver;
someone who tries to take control of a situation that they are not responsible for
A Sunday driver.
someone who drives at an annoyingly slow speed
to miss the boat
to miss an opportunity to get involved in something because you waited too long
be plain sailing
be very easy without problems
be in the same boat as someone else
be in the same bad situation as other people
be neck and neck
When two people in a competition are level and have the same chance of winning
Be on the home straight or stretch
To be coming to the end of a long task
Something be down to the wire
be a situation where the result of something is unsure until the very last moment
Get your skates on
Hurry up
Be skating on thin ice
be doing something risky or dangerous
To skate over something
To fail to deal with an issue
To keep your eye on the ball
to give your complete attention to something
Be a whole new ball game
To describe situation we know little about or is totally different
Be on the ball
Be very quick to understand something
A false start
A situation which fails because you are not properly ready or able to do it
To jump the gun
to do something too soon without thinking about it properly
Be the front runner
Be the person or organisation most likely to win something
Be below the belt
to describe something that someone says which is very hurtful or unfair
To take it on the chin
to accept an unpleasant situation without complaining
To throw in the towel
To give up, or be about to admit defeat
The/to kick off
The/to start an event/task,
To move the goalposts
To change the rules while trying to do something to make it harder,
A political football
To describe topics that politicians from different parties argue about and try to get an advantage for themselves
To be a bolt from the blue;
To be a complete surprise
To happen once in a blue moon
To happen extremely rarely
To say something until you are blue in the face
To waste time and effort saying something because we won't get any results.
To be born with a silver spoon in your mouth
To be born into a situation of high social position and wealth
To be silver-tongued
To describe someone who speaks in such a pleasant way that they can make other people do things for them
Every cloud has a silver lining
To be positive about a situation which seems bad but in fact has some advantage to it
To have green fingers
To be a good gardener and able to make plants grow very easily
The grass is always greener on the other side
To describe the idea that other people are in a better situation than you, even when they are not
To be green with envy
To be unhappy because someone else has something that we want
Be as good as gold
Very well-behaved
Have a heart of gold
Be very kind and helpful
Be worth its weight in gold
be extremely useful
To paint the town red
To go out partying to celebrate something
To catch someone red-handed
To find someone doing something bad or illegal while they are doing it
To be like a red rag to a bull
To describe something that is certain to create an angry response
To be black and white
To describe a situation in which it's easy for someone to understand what's wrong and what's right
Be as white as a sheet
To be very pale because you are ill, shocked or scared
Be a white-knuckle ride
something that is very exciting or scary
To be like banging your head against a brick wall
to do be doing something that seems impossible or makes us frustrated
To have your head in the clouds
To not be fully aware of a situation
Be an old head on young shoulders
someone who seems older than they are or if they talk and think like an older person/be mature
To be up in arms
To be very angry about something
To give my right arm to do it
To want something very, very much
to twist someone's arm
to try to persuade someone to do something that they don't want to do
To have/get itchy feet
To have/get a strong feeling that you'd like to travel
To get cold feet
To describe making a plan, but then decide not to do it because you are too nervous
To shoot yourself in the foot
To do something that ruins a situation for you
To keep an eye on something
to look after something or to watch it closely
To have eyes in the back of your head
To know everything that's happening around you, even though you can't see it
To have eyes that are bigger than your stomach
To take too much food and then not be able to eat it all
To pull someone's leg
try to make someone believe something that isn't true
to cost an arm and a leg
to be extremely expensive
To not have a leg to stand on
be in a situation where you can't prove something
To let your hair down
To behave in a less serious way than usual and enjoy yourself
Keep your hair on
To tell someone who is angry to calm down
to tear/pull your hair out
to be very anxious about something
To be as easy as pie
To be very easy
To be pie-eyed
To be very drunk
To have a finger in many pies
To be involved in lots of different activities
To not be your cup of tea
To be something you don´t like very much or are not interested in
To not do for all the tea in China
To be something you don't like very much or refuse to do
To be as good as a chocolate teapot
To be completely useless
To be a bad egg
To be bad or dishonest
Don't put all your eggs in one basket
never rely on only one plan
To have/get egg on your face
a make a mistake which makes you look stupid
To be full of beans
To be full of energy
To not have a bean
To have no money at all
to spill the beans
to tell/reveal a secret
be a hot potato
be a delicate issue that people can't agree about
To use a carrot and a stick
to persuade someone to do something using an incentive (carrot) and a threat (stick)
Be Like two peas in a pod
to be two or more things that are very alike, close (emotionally) or natural together
To go bananas
To become very emotional and starts shouting and behaving in a crazy way
To be a case of sour grapes
When someone pretends not to be impressed by something because they are jealous
To have/take a second bite of the cherry.
to do something a second time because we failed at first
To monkey around
to behave in a silly or careless way
Monkey business
bad or dishonest behaviour
Make a monkey out of someone.
Make someone look stupid
Be as busy as a bee
Be very busy or moving around quickly doing lots of things
Be The bee's knees
Be excellent
To have a bee in your bonnet
To constantly talking about a specific topic that concerns you.
be in the dog house
be unpopular because you´ve done something wrong
Have the hair of the dog
To drink more alcohol to cure a hangover
Make a dog's dinner of something.
make a mess of doing some thing
Be Knee-high to a grasshopper
Be very young or very small
Have butterflies in your stomach
Be very nervous about something we have to do
Have ants in your pants.
Be so excited/nervous about something that you can't keep
Not be enough room to swing a cat
Be a very small room/space
To let the cat out of the bag
tell a secret (especially if accidently)
To put the cat among the pigeons
To cause trouble or make people very angry
And pigs might fly
To say that something will never happen
Be a pigsty
a very dirty or untidy place
To make a pig's ear of something
do something very badly
Be a Birdbrain
Not be very bright/stupid
have a bird's eye view
see very clearly from a high place/above
A little bird told me
Used when giving information without revealing the source of the information
eat like a horse
eat a lot
Comes straight from the horse's mouth
Used to describe information that was obtained direct from the source
To flog a dead horse
to waste effort on something that we have no chance of succeeding at.
Be fishy
A strange or suspicious situation
Be a big fish in a small pond
be important or powerful - but only in a small organisation
Be a fish out of water
Be unhappy and/or uncomfortable because you're in an unfamiliar place
Be shaking like a leaf
Be so scared you can't stop moving
Be scared stiff
Be so frightened you can't move
Something sends shivers up and down your spine
something frightens you very much
To pull the wool over someone's eyes
to try to prevent someone from discovering the truth about something
Take someone for a ride
try to make someone believe something that isn't true
To not be born yesterday
To say you don´t believe an obvious lie or are not stupid
