10WordsQStudy guides › Level 10 · Wordsmith
Harder idioms
💡 The idea
Grown-up idioms often come from old stories and jobs: soldiers, sailors, hunters, farmers. Knowing the story makes the meaning stick.
⚡ Handy ones
| Idiom | Means | Story |
|---|---|---|
| bite the bullet | face something hard bravely | soldiers once bit on something during painful treatment |
| burn the midnight oil | work late into the night | lamps burned oil |
| a red herring | a clue that leads the wrong way | a strong-smelling fish, said to mislead hunting dogs |
| throw in the towel | give up | a boxer’s corner throws in a towel to stop the fight |
| the tip of the iceberg | a small part of a bigger problem | most of an iceberg is underwater |
| miss the boat | miss a chance | the boat left without you |
| a dark horse | a little-known competitor who does surprisingly well | an unknown horse in a race |
| when pigs fly | never | pigs can’t fly |
⚠️ Watch out
- Literal choices are traps: a red herring is never really a fish in these sentences.
- Use the rest of the sentence: it tells you whether the idiom is good news or bad.
🎯 Try these
- “The roof leaked because the builders cut corners.”
- “Everyone jumped on the bandwagon.”
Answers: 1) did the job cheaply or carelessly 2) joined in because it was popular
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