1. Middle School Source: Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms

2. What are Idioms? They appear in every language.
Example: “Let the cat out of the bag” means to reveal a secret.
*today it has nothing to do with a cat
*originally it did (English saying)

3. Where did these idioms come from?
All different sources:
*ancient fables
*Shakespeare (literature)
*customs (Native American)
*modern slang
Etc.,

4. Achilles’ Heel
Meaning: The one weakness, fault, flaw, or vulnerable spot in one’s otherwise strong character.
origin: From the Iliad… Achilles had a weak spot on the heel of his foot.

5. Backseat Driver
Meaning: a person who gives unwanted attention or advice.
Origin: In the 1920’s… rich people sat in the back and gave orders to chauffeurs.

6. Barking up the wrong tree
Meaning: to direct your efforts toward the wrong person.
Origin: From American colonial times …Trained dogs would chase a raccoon up a tree and bark widely until the hunter came. Sometimes the raccoon would escape to another tree.

7. Black Sheep of the Family
Meaning: the most unsuccessful, least admirable member of a family or similar group; a disgraced person.
Origin (early 1800’s): Shepherds disliked black sheep (can’t dye…and not enough born to sell black wool)… some believed they scared the rest of the flock.

8. Bury the Hatchet
Meaning: to settle an argument; end a war; make peace.
Origin: Native American…they would make peace with enemies by holding a ceremony…and they would bury weapons such as hatchets.

9. Every cloud has a silver lining
Meaning: there is something good in every bad situation
Origin: from English poet John Milton… he noticed that if the sun is behind a dark cloud, light shines around the edges like a silver lining. He said that even the worst situation has something hopeful.

10. Fly off the handle Meaning: to lose your temper
Origin: In the early 1800’s, many Americans used crudely made axes to chop wood. The axhead would fly off the handle during furious chopping.

11. In the bag Meaning: certain of success; fixed Origin: (1600’s)
*In animal sport fighting, game birds were transported in bags. An owner, confident of a win, would say that the “victory is in the bag.”

12. Let your hair down
Meaning: to behave freely and naturally; to relax and show your true self.
Origin: (1800’s)
This idiom started during a time when women pinned their hair up in public and let it down only in private.

13. The Sky’s the limit
Meaning: there’s no limit to what you can spend or how far you can go or what you can achieve
Origin: This saying goes back before the 1500’s when people literally saw no limit to the sky…today we know that there is….