Lesson 4: Idioms from Animals
Lesson 4 Explanation
Idioms from animals
- at a snail's pace
This animal is called a snail, and the word "pace" means speed or velocity. A snail moves very slowly - so any process that is going "at a snail's pace" is moving extremely slowly.
- make a beeline
This insect is called a bee. Bees normally fly in straight lines – that is, they fly directly to their destination. So if you make a beeline for a place, you go there directly and quickly. For example, if you drink 5 cans of soda during a car trip, when you get home you'll make a beeline for the bathroom.
- eat like a bird
Birds are not very heavy, so it is believed that they eat very little (if a bird got too fat, it couldn't fly!) So if a person eats like a bird, he or she eats very little food.
The opposite of eat like a bird is “eat like a pig” - this means eating too much and usually with bad table manners.
- bury your head in the sand
This idiom comes from an animal called an ostrich. Ostriches are incorrectly believed to put their heads into the sand to hide from predators - it would be an ineffective way of hiding, because the ostrich's entire body is still visible!
So the idiom bury your head in the sand means to ignore a problem even when it's very obvious that the problem exists.
- guinea pig
This animal is called a guinea pig, and in the early 20th century, guinea pigs were often used in scientific experiments. If you say a person is your "guinea pig," it means you're going to test something on that person.
For example, if you are learning how to cook, you can say to your husband or wife: "I'm going to make a new recipe. You can be my guinea pig."
- ahead of the pack
Wolves usually form groups. A group of wolves is called a "pack." The wolf pack has one wolf that is the leader.
So being "ahead of the pack" means that you are the leader in a competition, you are more successful than the other competitors.
- grab the bull by the horns
This animal is called a bull, and it has two horns on its head. The idiom comes from the dangerous sport of wrestling with bulls. The only way to dominate the animal is to grab its horns.
This is how the expression "grab (or take) the bull by the horns" came to mean facing and dealing with a problem directly.
- bug someone
"Bug" is another word for insect. Insects are usually annoying - like when you're trying to sleep and a mosquito keeps flying around your head, for example.
In English, the verb "bug someone" means to annoy the person repeatedly. It can be used for people:
• "My wife is bugging me to fix the refrigerator; it's been broken for four days."
And for problems in general that are consistently annoying:
• "My knee has been bugging me ever since I injured it last month."
• "It bugs me when someone interrupts me in the middle of a conversation."
- hog
A hog is a type of pig. Pigs really don't have the best reputation in English, do they? Apparently pigs are believed to be selfish, because the verb "hog" means to take more than your fair share.
Imagine you have two children, and you give them one toy. If your daughter plays with the toy for an hour and won't let your son play with it at all, she is "hogging" the toy.
- chomping at the bit
The word "chomping" means to make a biting or chewing action with the jaws and teeth, and a "bit" is the metal piece that is placed in a horse's mouth to control the horse.
If a horse has a lot of energy and is very excited to start running, it will start "chomping at the bit." So if a person is "chomping at the bit," he is extremely eager and anxious for something to happen.
- straight from the horse's mouth
Fans of horse racing like to have the best information about which horse is going to win the race. Of course, the best information of all would come directly from the horse itself! So if a piece of information is "straight from the horse's mouth," it is coming from a dependable source - usually someone who is directly involved.
- beat a dead horse
In this context, the verb "beat" means to hit violently. However, if a horse is already dead, then beating it won't have any result. So the idiom "beat a dead horse" means to waste time doing something that has already been done. This idiom is often used before saying something that has already been said, or expanding on a point that has already been made many times - you can start the phrase with "Not to beat a dead horse, but..." - to acknowledge that the subject has already been discussed.
