2. For Idiots Origins and Meanings

3. What is an idiom? An idiom is a figure of speech that is said one way but is not meant to be taken literally.

4. A watched pot never boils Meaning: Waiting anxiously or impatiently seems to take longer Origin: When boiling a pot, if you watch it, it will seem to take forever

5. A piece of cake Meaning: A straight forward task that can be easily accomplished Origin: Cake or pie is a symbol of ease and pleasantry

6. A Taste of Your Own Medicine Meaning: When you are mistreated the same way you mistreat others Origin: It came from one of Aesop’s fables. A man claims his potion will cure any illness but, when he gets sick, the people give him his own potion which does not work.

7. Barking up the Wrong Tree Meaning: to direct your attention to the wrong person or thing; or have the wrong idea Origin: during colonial times raccoon hunting was very popular. The hunters’ dogs would bark at the tree the raccoon was in. the raccoon would escape to another tree leaving the dog barking up the wrong tree.

8. Between a Rock and a Hard Place Meaning: Being in a tight spot, faced with a difficult decision Origin: Came from the early 20 th century

9. Bite off More Than you can Chew Meaning: To take on a task that is more than you can accomplish; to be greedy, over- confident, or too ambitious. Origin: Versions of this saying were used during the Middle ages of Europe and Ancient China.

10. Cry over spilled milk Meaning: To cry or complain about an event that already happened and cannot be changed Origin: Unknown

11. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch Meaning: Don’t count on profits before you earn them or have them in hand Origin: Aesop wrote about a woman carrying a basket of eggs. In her mind, she figured out how much she’d get for them. She got so excited that she dropped the basket and all the eggs smashed.

12. Get up on the wrong side of the bed Meaning: To awake with a bad temper or mood; feeling cross or grouchy Origin: Ancient Romans thought the left side of anything was bad. So, if you put your left foot down first when getting out of bed, you got up on the wrong side of the bed

13. In over your head Meaning: A risky situation that leads to failure; inability to understand something Origin: It has been widely used

14. Never bite the hand that feeds you Meaning: Don’t act against who you depend on Origin: Unknown

15. Out of sight, out of mind Meaning: If you don’t see something for a long time, you’ll eventually stop thinking about it Origin: Homer used this proverb in his famous epic, The Odyssey.

16. Preaching to the choir Meaning: To command an opinion to those who already accept it Origin: U.S. 1973

17. Two wrongs don’t make a right Meaning: An evil act can’t be corrected with more evil Origin: First known use was in a letter in 1783