Richard Spears - McGraw-Hill’s American Idioms Dictionary

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A phrase or sentence linked to a meaning that is different from the literal meanings of its component words is described as idiomatic and is called an idiom. Most idioms are found embedded in sentences and are sometimes difficult to isolate and extract.

English, like other languages, has many of these phrases or sentences that cannot be understood literally. Even if you know the meaning of all the words in a phrase and understand all the grammar of the phrase completely, the meaning of the phrase may still be puzzling. Many proverbs, informal phrases, and common sayings offer this kind of problem. This dictionary is a collection of the idiomatic phrases and sentences that occur frequently but not exclusively in American English. A large percentage of the idioms listed here are also found in other national varieties of English.

A. If you are confident that you know the exact wording of the idiom you are seeking, simply look it up directly in the dictionary. The, A, and An at the beginning of the idiom are ignored in alphabetizing. Consult the next section, How the Dictionary Works, for instructions on how to interpret the entries.

B. If you are uncertain about the exact wording of an idiom, look up any major word (i.e., verb, adjective, adverb, or noun) in the Key Word Index. Do the exercise (see #15 on page xxi) to gain skills in isolating the idiom from the rest of the sentence. Search the index until you find a sequence that matches the idiom you are seeking. Then look up that idiom in the dictionary. There is more information at the beginning of the index on page 591.

The following sections are numbered sequentially, since there is cross-referencing between the sections. Here is a directory:

Terms, Symbols, and Type Styles

Fixed and Variable Idioms

Optional Elements

Variable Elements

Movable Elements and the Dagger

Someone vs. One

The Asterisk, Swung Dash, and Shared Idiomatic Core

Brackets and Extra Information

Alphabetization, Organization, and Synonym Clusters

The Key Word Index and Search Strategies

. Origins

Taboo and Proscribed Words

Slang vs. Idiom

Illustrations

Exercise

New in the Fourth Edition

Reference Works Mentioned

(a square) is found at the beginning of an example. Examples are printed in italic type. Words emphasized within an example are printed in roman (not italic) type.

(a dagger) follows a movable element. (See #5.)

* (an asterisk) stands for a short list of words or phrases that are part of an entry head, as with *above suspicion where the * stands for be, keep, remain. (See #7.)

(a swung dash) stands for any entry head at the beginning of the entry block in which the swung dash is used. (See #7.)

( ) (parentheses) enclose optional elements and explanatory comments such as origins, etymologies, cross-referencing, and additional entry heads formed with the swung dash. (See #3.)

[ ] (brackets) enclose information in a definition that is necessary for the understanding of the entry head. (See #8.)

AND introduces synonymous entry heads or additional entry heads after a sense number. Additional synonymous entry heads are separated by semicolons (;). (See #9.)

entry block refers to a paragraph starting with a boldface word or phrase and including all the senses and examples. This replaces entry, which is ambiguous.

entry head refers to the phrase(s) found starting an entry block. An entry head is what the definition explains. An entry head is printed in