BODY IDIOMS

Idioms Meanings
HEAD
off the top of my head to say sth without really thinking
To have your head in the clouds to be unrealistic
head over heels in love deeply in love
To be in over your head to take on task you can't deal with
To be thick in the head not very intelligent
To keep one's head > < to lose one's head to keep calm > < to lose temper
To have a head for sth to have a natural ability at sth
To be over one's head to be too difficult for sb to understand
To eat the head off sb to be furious with sb
NERVE
To get on one's nerve: to make sb furious
To be a bundle of nerves to be extremely nervous
To lose your nerve to become scarced
BRAIN
brain-drain (n) well-educated people moving to live in another country
To pick sb's brain to ask sb for good advice
To beat one's brain out to try very hard to understand sth
To be the brains behind sth to plan and organise everything for sth
To rack one's brains to try very hard to think of sth
MIND
To give sb a piece of your mind to scold sb
To be in two minds to be undecided
To bear / to keep sth in mind to remember sth
To bring sth to mind to recall sth
To have sth in mind to be considering sth
Mind over matter The mental power to overcome difficulties
Mind your own business Stop interfering!
To speak your mind to say frankly what you think
To take your mind off sth to stop thinking about sth unpleasant
FACE
To lose face to feel embarrassed
To face the music to suffer the consequence of your actions
face-to-face (a) in person
To be as plain as the nose on your face to be obvious
To do sth until you are blue in the face You can try to do sth, but you won't succeed.
To pull a long face to look sad
To face the facts to accept a difficult situation or a truth
HAIR
To let your hair down to relax
a hair's breadth a very small distance or amount
To tear one's hair out to be extremely worried
To be hang by a hair to be in serious danger
EAR
To play it by ear to do sth without preparation or plan
To be all ears to be very eager to listen
To lend sb an ear to listen to sb carefully
To be wet behind the ears to be inexperienced
To give sb an earful to angrily express an opinion to sb
That's music to my ear I'm very happy to hear this
To be up to your ears in sth to be extremely busy
 EYE
You're a sight for sore eyes I'm happy to see you.
To keep an eye on sb/sth to watch sb/sth to protect
To set eyes on sb/sth to like and pay attention to sb/sth
To see eye to eye with sb to agree with sb
To catch one's eye to attract one's attention
To keep an eye peeled to watch out for sth
To be the apple of one's eyes to be loved and treasured by sb
To turn to blind eye to sb/sth to pretend not to see sb/sth
a blue-eyed boy a person who is a favourite of sb
black eye a mark of shame
To have a bird's eye view to have the view from a high position above
NOSE
To look down your nose at sb to look down on sb
To stick your nose into sth to intrude into sth that is not related to you
On the nose at an exact time
To pay through the nose to pay a price that is too high
MOUTH
By the word of mouth by being told by another
a change of heart a change of opinion or outlook
To be down in the mouth to be depressed
straight from the horse's mouth from a reliable source of information
TOUNGE
A slip of tounge saying something that you shouldn't say
To bite one's tongue to try hard not to say what you really feel
on the tip of my tongue to forget to say about the sth
TEETH
To be like pulling teeth to be very difficult
To be armed to teeth to have a lot of weapons
To have a sweet tooth to like sweet food so much
SKIN
By the skin of one's teeth just about to happen
soaked/ wet to the skin to be extremely wet
To save one's skin to save one's life
to get under sb's skin to irritate sb
BONE
as dry as a bone very dry
bare-bones (a) simplest
To make no bones about sth not to hesitate to express your feelings or thoughts
To be bone idle to be extremely lazy
To work fingers to the bone to work extremely hard
BLOOD
To make sb's blood boil to make sb angry
Blood is thicker than water family relationships are more important than any
others.
To make sb's blood run cold to terrify sb
NECK
To stick one's neck out (for sb) to take a risk (to help sb)
neck and neck very close in a competition
up to one's neck in work to have to do too much work
a pain in the neck very annoying
stiff-necked (a) stubborn

SHOULDER
To give someone the cold shoulder to ignore sb in an unfriendly way
To have a chip in one's shoulder to have an angry attitude
To be head and shoulder above sb to be superior to sb
To shoulder the responsibility to take the responsibility
CHEST
To get sth off your chest to tell sb your problems to feel better
HEART
To lose heart to feel discouraged
To have one's heart in the mouth to be extremely anxious
To follow your heart to do what you believe is right
To be half-hearted about sth not to take sth seriously
To have a heart-to-heart talk to have an open discussion
To pour one's heart out to confide in sb
ARM
To cost an arm and a leg to cost a lot of money
To keep sb/sth at arm's length to avoid being connected to sb/sth
as long as your arm very long
HAND
An old hand an experienced person
To give/ To lend sb a hand to help sb do sth
Hands down undoubtedly
To wash your hands out of sth to decline to take further responsibility
To have a hand in it to deal with sth secretly
To have your hands full to be busy
To live from hand to mouth to earn only enough money for food
To catch sb red-handed to catch sb doing sth bad
To be a dab hand at sth to be skilled at sth
FINGER
To have a finger in every pie to be involved in many activities
Not lift a finger to do sth not to do sth to help sb although capable of doing it
Keep your fingers crossed for sb to wish luck for sb
To have sth at fingertips to be able to achieve sth easily
THUMBS
to be all (fingers and) thumbs to be very clumsy
thumbs-up approval
the rule of thumb a general rule
To get sb under one's thumb to control sb
STOMACH
To have butterflies in one's stomach to be nervous and anxious
LEG
Break a leg Good luck
To pull one's leg to tease sb
A leg up an advantage
FOOT/ FEET
To put your foot in your mouth To make sb embarrassed due to your slip of tongue
To foot the bill to pay the bill
To get cold feet to get nervous before a big event
To have itchy feet not be able to settle down in one place
To put your feet up to relax
To drag your feet to do sth reluctantly
To stand on your own feet to become independent
TOE
To be on your toes to be alert
To toe the line to follow the regulation