An idiom (Latin: idioma, "special property", f. Greek: ἰδίωμα – idiōma, "special feature, special phrasing", f. Greek: ἴδιος – idios, "one’s own") is a combination of words that has a figurative meaning owing to its common usage. An idiom's figurative meaning is separate from the literal meaning. There are thousands of idioms and they occur frequently in all languages. There are estimated to be at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language.
The following sentences contain idioms. The fixed words constituting the idiom in each case are bolded:
a. She is pulling my leg. - to pull someone's leg means to trick them by telling them something untrue.
b. When will you drop them a line? - to drop someone a line means to phone or send a note to someone.
c. You should keep an eye out for that. - to keep an eye out for something means to maintain awareness of it.
d. I can't keep my head above water. - to keep one's head above water means to manage a situation.
e. It's raining cats and dogs. - raining cats and dogs means it's raining really hard (a downpour).
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