the 30 most bizarre phrases in the English language

You may be studying for IELTS or attending one of the language training classes but below are some of the phrases you may not learn from textbooks:

The 30 phrases

Bite the bullet (Army and Navy)

To have to do something very unpleasant

Fly by the seats of your pants (Army and Navy)

To do something without a clear plan, to improvise

Go doolally (Army and Navy)

To go mad

It’s brass monkeys outside (Army and Navy)

Freezing cold and miserable weather

Three sheets to the wind (Army and Navy)

Very drunk and walking correspondingly unsteadily

Separate the wheat from the chaff (Bible)

To distinguish between quality and worthlessness

Skin of your teeth (Bible)

Barely managing to do something

Through the eye of a needle (Bible)

To undergo a near impossible process

Happy as a sand boy (Euphemism)

To be very happy indeed

Sweet Fanny Adams (Euphemism)

Emphatically nothing at all

Up the duff/in the club (Euphemism)

To be pregnant

Butter up (Figurative)

To flatter someone with the aim of getting them to be of assistance

Kick the bucket (Figurative)

To die

Storm in a teacup/tempest in a teapot (Figurative)

A lot of trouble or argument over nothing of importance

Bob’s your Uncle (Historical)

To achieve something with great ease

Eat Humble Pie (Historical)

To submit to something below one's dignity, to admit one is wrong

Mad as a hatter (Historical)

To be completely insane

Piss Poor (Historical)

To be extremely poor

Kangaroo Court (Historical)

A fast, unfair legal procedure

Skeleton in the cupboard (Historical)

Something embarrassing to hide

Carry your heart on your sleeve (Literature)

To be very open and transparent

It was a dickens of a job (Literature)

A very difficult job

Have a butchers (Rhyming slang)

To look at something

Haven’t seen you in donkey’s years (Rhyming slang)

In a long time

Taking the Mickey (Rhyming slang)

To make fun of someone

It’s raining cats and dogs (Rhyming slang)

Raining very hard indeed

Horses for courses (Sports)

Different people suited to different things

Red herring (Sports)

Something misleading

Win hands down (Sports)

To do something without a great effort

Point Blank (Sports)

Very close up and right on target