英语典故成语 例句

Allusive English Idioms

英语典故成语

1.His Achilles’ heel was his pride – he would get very angry if anyone criticized his

work.

2.The Middle East Oilfield seems to be an apple of discord between the two

superpowers.

3.The sofa he bought yesterday was found to be an apple of Sodom.

He wanted the post of Secretary to the club and now he has got it he finds it is dead-sea fruit.

4.Before her guests arrived, the hostess had put her house in apple-pie order.

5.Mrs. Joe has been out a dozen times, looking for you, Pip. And she’s out now,

making it a baker’s dozen.

Very few persons were there, and only a baker’s dozen showed real interest.

6.Anyone who thinks that the job of being President of the United States is a bed of

roses is quite mistaken.

7.“Yes, but who will tell him she’s no good –who’ll bell the cat? Some of us know

he’s got a bunch of fives.”

8.The little native children ran about the beach in their birthday suits.

9.The accused woman knew that she would have to bite the bullet until the new

evidence in the case could prove her innocence.

10.My boss told me that if I brought home the bacon on the new contract I would be

given more wages.

11.It is no use to bury your head in the sand; you know quite well that enquiry will

have to be made. Be a man and face up to it.

12.It was and is the custom of the Indians to go through the ceremony of burying the

tomahawk when they made peace; when they went to war they dug it up again.

13.When they bought that house, they bought a pig in a poke.

14.That old man hates long fancy words – he has always called a spade a spade.

15.To water the streets after a good rain is carrying coals to Newcastle.

16.You have been used as a cat’s paw by that woman; she only wanted you to help

her get into local society.

17.The dishonest official knew his goose was cooked when the newspapers printed

the story about him.

18.When his rich uncle died, leaving him his money, John shed crocodile tears.

19.The newspaper placards that had cried wolf so often, cried wolf now in vain.

20.He’s trying to curry favour with the boss again.

21.The knot which you thought a Gordian one will untie itself before you.

The new manager found that none of the senior staff liked him, but he soon cut that knot by dismissing them all.

22.Although Rita lives alone in that big house, she is like a dog in the manger when

it comes to letting someone share it with her.

The dog-in-the-manger policy develops doggish instincts in those who practice it.

23.Fred said he could beat the new man in boxing, but he lost and had to eat crow.

24.He began by threatening me, but I told him I knew all about his past life, and he

soon ate humble pie.

25.It serves you right if the man did make you eat the leek; you should not be so

boastful.

26.The crew were rescued at the eleventh hour.

The editors made several eleventh-hour changes in the magazine.

27.At a national convention, states often vote for their favorite sons first; then they

change and vote for another man.

28.They want you to photograph the Queen? That’ll be quite a feather in your cap!

29.Our neighbor and his wife fight like Kilkenny cats. They have now decided to

separate.

30.What’s the matter with you today? No one seems to be able to do anything right

for you. You must have got out of bed on the wrong side this morning.

31.When Mr. Smith declined the services of the advertising agent to advertise his

wares, he remarked, “Good wine needs no bush, my goods sell themselves.”

32.My chance of promotion has gone west.

33.The debt would be paid on the Greek calends.

34.Six months before the stock-market crash he saw the handwriting on the wall and

shrewdly sold all his securities.

35.He may offer you a post in his firm, but he has an axe to grind, he wants to stand

well with your father.

36.He was born with an itching palm.

37.After a long war, the exhausted enemy held out the olive branch.

38.What he played on that occasion was no more than a Judas kiss.

Jobson played the Judas and turned on his partner.

39.The poor fellow went broke because his wife was always trying to keep up with

the Joneses.

40.Old Mr. Jones kicked the bucket just two days before his ninety-fourth birthday.

41.Nobody could imagine that the man was so foolish as to kill the goose that laid the

golden eggs.

42.The lame duck politician is usually powerless. No one will listen to him because

he’ll soon be gone.

43.In his search for his mother he left no stone unturned, and even after 20 years he

refused to believe that she was dead.

44.I’ve let the cat out of the bag already. Mr. Corthell, and I might as well tell the

whole thing now.

Well, the cat is out of the bag– everybody knows about their marriage.

45.Of course, the leading actor gets th e lion’s share of the applause.

46.There is certainly no excuse for literary logrolling. It is a detestable offence.

47.I think that this world is a very good sort of world, and that a man can get along in

it very well if he minds his p’s and q’s.

48.He knocked, and before you could say Jack Robinson the door opened.

49.That young man is in everyone’s good books.

I must have annoyed him but I just don’t know what I’ve done to get in his bad

books today.

50.For the beautiful girl to use makeup would be to gild the lily.

51.Never be exalted over a premature success, as it always turns out to be a

Pandora’s box.

52.My last memory is the headmaster’s parting shot: “Well, goodbye, Graves, and

remember that your best friend is the waste-paper basket.”

53.The dog was actually playing possum, and, though apparently asleep, was aware

of every move his master made.

54.We should teach the students in accordance with their aptitude, not place all of

them on the bed of Procrustes.

55.How can we be rejoicing over such a Pyrrhic victory?

56.“…Adam and Eve must have been troublemakers because they both raised Cain.”

When John couldn’t go on the basketball trip with the team he raised Cain.

57.Our passports weren’t returned to us for weeks because of red tape.

58.Don’t take the drawing-room curtains to make the dining-room look smart –it’s

merely robbing Peter to pay Paul.

59.He withdrew moodily to a bench, comforted, however, not a little by the thought

that he had given Mrs. Carr a Roland for an Oliver.

60.It was whispered, under the rose, that the King was insane.

61.The pirates had to fight and be killed or give up and be hanged; they were between

Scylla and Charybdis.

62.The other workmen have sent him to Coventry because he supported the boss’s

point of view.

63.The young girl set her cap for the new town doctor, who was a bachelor.

64.“The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I, my lord, am on the side of the

angels.”

One might say that it was on the side of the angels, if that be understood as meaning that it was on the side of man.

65.As they used to say to an honored guest: Come and sit above the salt. Here’s a

place set for you.

The servant often sits below the salt.

66.You are asking Hellyer to the dinner. Gosh! He will be a skeleton at the feast.

67.The skeleton in our family closet was Uncle Willie. No one mentioned him

because he drank too much.

It’s time to bring the family skeleton out of the cupboard.

68.Jamie and Martin had a quarrel last week, but they have smoked the peace pipe

now.

69.You don’t want to win the prize, eh! I think it’s a case of sour grapes. You say you

don’t want to because you know you can’t.

70.He wanted to announce his discovery personally and is very angry because

someone has stolen his thunder and printed the whole story in this morning’s newspaper.

71.Either complete frankness, or complete ignoring – and that meant living with the

sword of Damocles above his head!

72.But as I was certain I should not be allowed to leave the enclosure, my only plan

was to take French leave, and slip out when nobody was watching.

73.I’m not here to waste time, so talk turkey or I’ll go.

74.John said, “My father knows the President of the United Sates.” Dick answered,

“Tell it to the marines.”

75.Depend upon it, Sir, there is nothing like leather.

76.She had thrown down her gauntlet to him, and he had not been slow in picking it

up.

It thus became necessary to take up the gauntlet thrown down to us, and to fight out the struggle whether we liked it or not.

77.Since he jilted her she has thrown her cap over a windmill and is leading a very

gay life now.

78.If I can give that Cerberus a sop, I shall be at rest for one day.

79.On the 9th May 1945 Germany, completely defeated, threw up the sponge.

When Harold saw his arguments were not being accepted, he threw in the towel and left.

80.When the host gave some pictures to them, they didn’t realize that they were

receiving a modern Trojan horse: microphones and radio transmitters were hidden in the picture frames.

81.He bought the second-hand radio at a very low price. But it turned out to be a real

white elephant, always in need of expensive repair, and the reception was not too good either.