(FRUITS)

All the tea in China
If someone won’t do something for all the tea in China, they won’t do it no matter how much money they are offered.
Apple of your eye
Something or, more often, someone that is very special to you is the ‘apple of your’ eye.
As cool as a cucumber
If someone is as cool as a cucumber, they don’t get worried by anything.
Bad egg
A person who cannot be trusted is a bad egg. Good egg is the opposite.
Banana republic
Banana republic is a term used for small countries that are dependent on a single crop or resource and governed badly by a corrupt elite.
Bear fruit
If something bears fruit, it produces positive results.
Best thing since sliced bread
If something is the best thing since sliced bread, it is excellent.
Big cheese
The big cheese is the boss.
Bun in the oven
If a woman has a bun in the oven, she is pregnant.
Butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth
If someone looks as if butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth, they look very innocent.
Carrot and stick
If someone offers a carrot and stick, they offer an incentive to do something combined with the threat of punishment.
Chalk and cheese
Things, or people, that are like chalk and cheese are very different and have nothing in common.
Cheap as chips
If something is very inexpensive, it is as cheap as chips.
Cherry pick
If people cherry pick, they choose things that support their position, while ignoring things that contradict it.
Chew the cud
If you chew the cud, you think carefully about something.
Chew the fat
If you chew the fat with someone, you talk at leisure with them.
Cook up a storm
If someone cooks up a storm, they cause a big fuss or generate a lot of talk about something.
Couch potato
A couch potato is an extremely idle or lazy person who chooses to spend most of their leisure time horizontal in front of the TV and eats a diet that is mainly junk food.
Curate’s egg
If something is a bit of a curate’s egg, it is only good in parts.
Cut the mustard
If somebody or something doesn’t cut the mustard, they fail or it fails to reach the required standard.
Different kettle of fish
If something is a different kettle of fish, it is very different from the other things referenced.
Duck soup
If something is duck soup, it is very easy.
Easy as pie
If something is easy as pie, it is very easy indeed.
Eat humble pie
If someone apologises and shows a lot of contrition for something they have done, they eat humble pie.
Eat someone alive
If you eat someone alive, you defeat or beat them comprehensively.
Egg on your face
If someone has egg on their face, they are made to look foolish or embarrassed.
Fall off the turnip truck
If someone has just fallen off the turnip truck, they are uninformed, naive and gullible. (Often used in the negative)
Fine words butter no parsnips
This idiom means that it’s easy to talk, but talk is not action.
Finger in the pie
If you have a finger in the pie, you have an interest in something.
Forbidden fruit
Something enjoyable that is illegal or immoral is forbidden fruit.
From soup to nuts
If you do something from soup to nuts, you do it from the beginning right to the very end.
Glutton for punishment
If a person is described as a glutton for punishment, he happily accept jobs and tasks that most people would try to get out of.
Go pear-shaped
If things have gone wrong, they have gone pear-shaped.
Gone pear-shaped
If things have gone pear-shaped they have either gone wrong or produced an unexpected and unwanted result.
Good egg
A person who can be relied on is a good egg. Bad egg is the opposite.
Gravy train
If someone is on the gravy train, they have found and easy way to make lots of money.
Hard cheese
Hard cheese means hard luck.
How do you like them apples
This idiomatic expression is used to express surprise or shock at something that has happened. It can also be used to boast about something you have done.
I should cocoa
This idiom comes from ‘I should think so’, but is normally used sarcastically to mean the opposite.
In a nutshell
This idiom is used to introduce a concise summary.
In a pickle
If you are in a pickle, you are in some trouble or a mess.
In the soup
If you’re in the soup, you’re in trouble.
It’s no use crying over spilt milk
This idiom means that getting upset after something has gone wrong is pointless; it can’t be changed so it should be accepted.
Keen as mustard
If someone is very enthusiastic, they are as keen as mustard.
Know which side one’s bread is buttered on
If you know which side one’s bread is buttered on, you know where your interests lie and will act accordingly to protect or further them.
Know your onions
If someone is very well-informed about something, they know their onions.
Like taking candy from a baby
If something is like taking candy from a baby, it is very easy to do.
Lose your lunch
If you lose your lunch, you vomit.
Mutton dressed as lamb
Mutton dressed as lamb is term for middle-aged or elderly people trying to look younger.
Nest egg
If you have some money saved for the future, it is a nest egg.
One bad apple
The full form of this proverb is ‘one bad apple spoils the barrel’, meaning that a bad person, policy, etc, can ruin everything around it.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison
This idiom means that one person can like something very much, but another can hate it.
Out to lunch
If someone’s out to lunch, they are crazy or out of touch.
Pie in the sky
If an idea or scheme is pie in the sky, it is utterly impractical.
Piece of cake
If something is a piece of cake, it is really easy.
Pinch of salt
If what someone says should be taken with a pinch of salt, then they exaggerate and distort things, so what they say shouldn’t be believed unquestioningly.
Put all your eggs in one basket
If you put all your eggs in one basket, you risk everything on a single opportunity which, like eggs breaking, could go wrong.
Recipe for disaster
A recipe for disaster is a mixture of people and events that could only possibly result in trouble.
Rest is gravy
If the rest is gravy, it is easy and straight-forward once you have reached that stage.
Rice missionary
A rice missionary gives food to hungry people as a way of converting them to Christianity.
Salad days
Your salad days are an especially happy period of your life.
Salt in a wound
If you rub salt in a wound, you make someone feel bad about something that is already a painful experience. ‘Pour salt on a wound’ is an alternative form of the idiom.
Salt of the earth
People who are salt of the earth are decent, dependable and unpretentious.
Save someone’s bacon
If something saves your bacon, it saves your life or rescues you from a desperate situation.
Sell like hot cakes
If a product is selling very well, it is selling like hot cakes.
Sell your birthright for a mess of pottage
If a person sells their birthright for a mess of pottage, they accept some trivial financial or other gain, but lose something much more important. ‘Sell your soul for a mess of pottage’ is an alternative form.
Separate the wheat from the chaff
When you separate the wheat from the chaff, you select what is useful or valuable and reject what is useless or worthless.
Sharp cookie
Someone who isn’t easily deceived or fooled is a sharp cookie.
Spill the beans
If you spill the beans, you reveal a secret or confess to something.
Squeeze blood out of a turnip
When people say that you can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip, it means that you cannot get something from a person, especially money, that they don’t have.
Sure as eggs is eggs
These means absolutely certain, and we do say ‘is’ even though it is grammatically wrong.
Take the biscuit
If something takes the biscuit, it is the absolute limit.
That is the way the cookie crumbles
It means that things don’t always turn out the way we want.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch
This idiom means that you don’t get things for free, so if something appears to be free, there’s a catch and you’ll have to pay in some way.
Tough cookie
A tough cookie is a person who will do everything necessary to achieve what they want.
Tough nut to crack
If something is a tough nut to crack, it is difficult to find the answer or solution. When used about a person, it means that it is difficult to get them to do or allow what you want. ‘Hard nut to crack’ is an alternative.
Upper crust
The upper crust are the upper classes and the establishment.
Upset the apple cart
If you upset the apple cart, you cause trouble and upset people.
Walk on eggshells
If you have to walk on eggshells when with someone, you have to be very careful because they get angry or offended very easily.
You can’t have your cake and eat it
This idiom means that you can’t have things both ways. For example, you can’t have very low taxes and a high standard of state care.
You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs
This idiom means that in order to achieve something or make progress, there are often losses in the process.