{"id":928,"date":"2015-11-23T16:25:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-23T16:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/?p=928"},"modified":"2015-11-23T16:25:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T16:25:26","slug":"animal-idioms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/animal-idioms\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal idioms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some animal idioms. Each expression is followed by its meaning or definition. Example sentences are also given.<\/p>\n<p><strong>To be a chicken \/ to be chicken livered<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you are a chicken you are a coward.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I can\u2019t believe that she tried parasailing last week. She is such a chicken.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To be like a dog with two tails<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you are like a dog with two tails, you are very happy.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When he found out that he\u2019d won the first prize, he was like a dog with two tails.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Gone to the dogs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When a business or a country goes to the dogs it becomes less successful or prosperous than it was.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The country has gone to the dogs since they won the election.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Like a fish out of water<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you are like a fish out of water, you are uncomfortable.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When she started talking about her ex-flames, her new boyfriend looked like a fish out of water.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Something is fishy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When something is fishy, it is suspicious.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There was something fishy in the way he answered my questions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To be a fly on the wall<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you want to be a fly on the wall, you want to be somewhere secretly, so that you can overhear what is said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I would love to have been a fly on the wall when they discussed their secret plans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To be as sly as a fox \/ a sly old fox<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To be very clever or cunning<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He exited the company before it went to the dogs. He is a sly old fox.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Get someone&#8217;s goat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When something gets your goat, it really upsets you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The whole time I was singing she kept herself busy playing games on her phone. She really got my goat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Wouldn&#8217;t say boo to a goose<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Used to describe a person who is very timid or nervous<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He won\u2019t make a good leader; he wouldn\u2019t say boo to a goose.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Not give a hoot<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To not give a hoot is to not care at all<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She isn\u2019t very popular with her friends because she doesn\u2019t give a hoot about what they say.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A dark horse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This expression is used to describe a person who has skills not known to others.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I was surprised when he sat down to play the tabla. I didn\u2019t know that he could. He is a real dark horse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To eat like a horse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To eat like a horse is to eat a lot.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why do you eat like a horse? Haven\u2019t you eaten anything since morning?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Straight from the horse&#8217;s mouth<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you hear something straight from the horse\u2019s mouth, you hear it from the person actually involved.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What you have heard is true. John is marrying his longtime girlfriend. I heard it straight from the horse\u2019s mouth. (=I heard it from John himself.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Mutton dressed (up) as lamb<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This expression is used to describe an older woman who wears the kind of clothes that are more suitable for a much younger woman.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You must stop wearing those miniskirts if you don\u2019t want to look like mutton dressed up as lamb. Don\u2019t forget that you are fifty-five.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To pull a rabbit out of the hat<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To pull a rabbit out of the hat is to surprise everyone by doing something clever.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>He really pulled a rabbit out of the hat by winning that business contract.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A wolf in sheep&#8217;s clothing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Someone who is dangerous but pretends to be harmless<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If I were you I wouldn\u2019t trust him. He\u2019s a real wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are some animal idioms. Each expression is followed by its meaning or definition. Example sentences are also given. To be a chicken \/ to be chicken livered If you are a chicken you&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[185],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-idioms","tag-animal-idioms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perfectyourenglish.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}