Learner's Club

Once In A Blue Moon

English often uses idioms and phrases in course of everyday communications. Read the following sentences.

Arun got into trouble for breaking his father's cell phone.
Now he's really in the doghouse.

Look at the pictures below:

The first picture shows the exact meaning of the words in italics. The second picture shows what the words mean when they are used as an idiom. An idiom is a phrase or expression. The words in an idiom do not mean exactly what they say. In other words, an idiom has a different meaning from the individual words it contains.
Read the following sentences.

Munni is very proud of her kitchen. It's always spick and span. On that particular day, she was sitting there with her sisters, having an idle chit-chat, when the news of Munier's accident came right out of the blue.

For example, the idiom, out of the blue means 'something totally unexpected'. It has nothing to do with blue or out of. Spick and span means 'absolutely neat and clean', almost spotless. Chit-chat means 'small talk'.

To find an idiomatic expression in the dictionary, you must decide what is the key word in that idiom. Idioms in a dictionary are defined at the entry for the first 'full' word (a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb), but not under any grammatical word such as, articles or prepositions. Idiomatic expressions are always printed in bold italic type in a dictionary.

Here are some sentences with idiomatic expressions. Decide what the key word in each idiom is and find the meaning of the idiom in your dictionary, and then rewrite the sentences in non-idiomatic English. For example,

For Salim, it was love at first sight, which means,
Salim fell in love at the very first meeting or the moment he saw her.

1. Hena's always reading. She will read anything that comes her way. She's a real bookworm. 2. From the top of that mountain you will get a bird's-eye-view of the town. 3. Shila was green with envy when she saw Nadia's palatial house. 4. He's so conceited! He just gets on my nerves. 5. It's strange that Sunil and James are such close friends for they are like chalk and cheese. 6. Matin has a razor sharp mind. 7. I am sick and tired of his lies and pretensions. 8. Hasan's new album is selling like hot cakes. 9. Nazmul and Ali don't see eye to eye on anything. 10. I want nothing more to do with your plan. I just want to wash my hands of the whole thing.

However, it is not enough to understand the idioms by themselves. We have to learn to actually use them in conversation or writing to make them part of our everyday communications in English. The following exercise would help us use some idiomatic expressions in proper contexts.

Put each of the following idioms in its correct place in the sentences that follow.

tooth and nail cup of tea

hand-to-mouth pins and needles

a black sheep once in a blue moon

1. A day labourer in this country makes just enough money to provide for his basic daily needs. He lives from ________. 2. All his children have settled in Canada, and would come home only _____________. 3. All of Hamid's sons have respectable and honest jobs except Raihan. Raihan wouldn't study or do any work and he is always in trouble. I'm afraid he is the ____________of the family. 4. I like literature and music. However, politics is definitely not my ___________. 5. It's really very unfortunate that when the old man died, his sons fought __________ over his will. 6. I've been sitting in the same position without moving for a long time. I think I've got ________ in my legs.

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