A Concise Dictionary of English Idioms [antikvár]

Preface This dictionary has two objects. The first is to furnish the reader with a simple and practical guide to the most frequently used idiomatic expressions in English—those countless expressions which everyone uses, which usually evade the normal rules of grammar, and which often have implications quite unconnected with the normal meanings of the words themselves. The second is to give the origin and history of some of these. Wherever it is felt helpful to show the idiom 'in action', the explanations of idiomatic expressions are accompanied by illustrations. The reader should be aware that it is frequently difficult to decide under what word an idiom should be entered. Should 'See how the land lies' be entered under 'See', 'Land' or 'Lie'? Cross-references have frequently been used, but complete cross-referring would have increased the size of this volume several times; accordingly, if an expression does not appear in the place expected, the reader is asked to look it up under another key word in the expression. Similar difficulties have occurred in deciding on the correct alphabetical order of idioms within any one entry; idioms usually consist of several words, and have more than one key word, with the result that exact alphabetizing is impossible. Again the reader is requested to bear with the editor, and to be prepared to look in more than one place under an entry. There are a number of deliberate omissions from the Dictionary: foreign words or phrases, commercial and technical idioms, dialect words, and, for the most part, single words—the idiomatic variations of which can be discovered in any ordinary dictionary. Only a few slang expressions are included; for a more comprehensive coverage of slang, the reader should consult the companion volume, A Concise Dictionary of Slang. B A Phythian