Archive for the ‘Vocabulary’ Category

Idioms derived from the names of household objects

February 15th, 2011 in Vocabulary

Bed

Bed of roses: a very comfortable existence

Stardom is not a bed of roses.

Get out of bed on the wrong side

If you get out of bed on the wrong side, you are in a bad mood throughout the day.

He must have got out of bed on the wrong side: he gets annoyed very easily.

As you make your bed, so you must lie in it (One has to face the consequences of one’s actions and take the responsibility for them.)

Ceiling

Hit the roof / ceiling (become very angry)

She hit the ceiling when she realized that he had been cheating on her.

Cupboard

A skeleton in the cupboard (closely kept secret)

Her shameless affair with a married man is the skeleton in the family cupboard.

Door

Lay something at someone’s door (say that somebody is responsible for something that has gone wrong)

The failure of the employee welfare scheme can be laid at the company’s door. (=The company is responsible for the failure of the employee welfare scheme.)

Shut the door in someone’s face

If someone shuts the door in your face, he / she refuses to talk to you.

She shut the door in my face without saying a word.