50+ List of Idioms for Students with Meaning and Examples

Whether you are a student who is learning English for the first time or a more advanced student refining their pronunciation and lexicon, idiom usage is a key component of becoming a confident and competent speaker of the language. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at a comprehensive list of idioms for students. We’ll go over the meanings of each phrase and explain their usage in context. We’ll also provide examples of how to use each idiom in conversation. With this comprehensive list of idioms, you’ll be able to practice using them in your own conversations and become a more confident English speaker.

List of Idioms for Students Infographics – 1

List of Idioms for Students

Table of Contents

List of idioms for elementary students

Here is a list of 50 useful idioms for students. This list of idioms is best suitable for students of grade 3 to grade 11.

1. Lead somebody astray	to encourage someone to do immoral things	Jack was led astray by some of his friends.
2. Lead someone by the nose	to make a person do whatever one wants	She leads her husband by the nose.
3. Leave in the lurch	leave in crisis	Do not leave your friends in the lurch.
4. Leave no stone unturned	to try every possible means	She left no stone unturned to pass the examination.
5. Lend an ear	to listen in a sympathetic way to sb	This kind lady lends an ear to the problems of the poor.
6. Let sleeping dogs lie	avoid troubles	He decided to let sleeping dogs not ask his son about his failure.
7. Let the cat out of the bag	to let a secret become known unintentional	I wanted to keep my success a secret for pleasant surprise but my brother let the cat out of the bag.
8. Let the grass grow under one’s feet	to delay or waste time	He decided quickly well and does not let the grass grow under his feet.
9. Lion’s share	the largest share	She got the lion’s share from her husband’s property.
10. Live by one’s wits	o get money by clever means	He does not work hard and lives by his wits.
11. Live from hand to mouth	to live by spending all that you earn	He earns a little and lives from hand to mouth.
12. Live in a fool’s Paradise	o be in a happy state for foolish reasons	To hope to pass the examination without hard work is like to live in a fool’s paradise
13. Lock, stock, and barrel	completely	They shifted their business lock, stock, and barrel to a new city.
14. Long and short of sth	the story, in a few words	The long and short of the quarrel between the two brothers is that each wants to marry his rich cousin.
15. Look ahead	to think about future	After months of work, we looked ahead to summer vacation.
16. Look sharp	to be quick, to hurry	Bring me a glass of water and look sharp
17. Lose ground	to lose one’s advantage	I think we are losing ground about this project.
18. Lose heart	to become disappointed	We should not lose heart and continue our struggle.
19. Lose one’s temper	to show anger	I lost my temper and gave him a blow.
20. Lose one’s head	to become unable to behave sensibly	John has lost his head over the matter.

A big list of 50+ Idioms for Students

21. Lose sight of	to stop being able to see	She lost sight of her child in-crowd.
22. Maiden speech	first speech	She impressed us with her maiden
23. Maiden voyage	first sea journey	The Titanic sank during its maiden voyage.
24. Make a clean breast of something	to confess something	First, he denied his crime but finally, he decided to make a clean breast of it.
25. Make a mountain out of a molehill	to treat a minor as a large one	Your son is just late, it does not mean that he has had an accident, you are making a mountain of a molehill.
26. Make amends for	to compensate	It is just an accident, but still, I am ready to make amends for the damage.
27. Make both ends meet	to live within one’s income	It is very difficult for the poor to make both ends meet.
28. Make fun of	to mock at	The whole class made fun of her odd clothes
29. Make good	to become successful and rich after being poor	The man has made good, though he was poor a little while ago.
30. Make headway	to make progress in spite of difficulties	They have made headway towards finding the solution to the problem.
31. Make light of something	to treat something as trivial	He had a bad fall but he made light of his cuts.
32. Make neither head nor tail	to be completely unable to understand something	I could make neither head nor tail of the matter.
33. Make one’s mark	to make a strong impression	He is making his mark as a good writer.
34. Make the best of it / a bad job / a bad bargain	to try fully to turn failure into success	The job was against her taste, but she made the best of it.
35. Make the most of	to take full advantage of	We have got only one day in New York, so we should make the most of it.
36. Make up one’s mind	to decide	He has made up his mind to visit Pakistan.
37. Mark time	to pass the time while you wait for something more interesting	He is just marking time in this job, he hopes to be an army officer soon.
38. Meet somebody halfway	to make a compromise with somebody	If you charge somewhat less, I may meet you halfway.
39. Midsummer madness	extreme folly	It would be midsummer madness to oppose the boss for nothing.
40. Mind one’s own business	to pay attention to one’s own affairs and not to interfere in people’s affairs	Do not advise me, mind your own Business.

Also Check: Some Daily life Idioms

41. Miss the bus/boat	to fail to take advantage of an opportunity	You will miss the boat if you do not propose to her on her birthday.
42. More or less	nearly	He earns more or less fifty thousand a month.
43. Move heaven and earth	to make full efforts	she moved heaven and earth to get her aim.
44. Neck or nothing	risking everything	I drove neck or nothing to reach the examination hall on time.
45. Next to nothing	almost nothing	He knows next to nothing about farming
46. Nip in the bud	crushed at the beginning	Nip every evil in the bud.
47. Now and then	at times	Now and then, we meet our old friends
48. Null and void	not valid	This contract is null and void.
49. Of one’s own accord	to do something without being forced	She married Jolly of her own accord.
50. Off and on / on and off	now and again, sometimes	It rained off and on all day long.