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10 Interesting Body Idioms with Meanings and Examples

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Learn commonly used body idioms in English. The following lesson introduces 10 popular idioms used body parts with their meanings and useful examples with ESL images.

List of Body Idioms in English

1. Head start

Meaning: An advantage over everyone else

E.g. You’ve got a head start over / another’s trying to get the job because you’ve got relevant work experience.

2. Sight for sore eyes

Meaning: A sight that makes you happy

E.g. You’re a sight for sore eyes!

3. A weight off your shoulders

Meaning: You no longer worry about something or deal with something difficult

E.g. Talking over my problem with myclose friend was a weight off my shoulders.

4. Pain in the neck

Meaning: Someone or something making your life difficult

E.g. This calculus homework is a real pain in the neck.

5. Gut feeling

Meaning: A sense or impression that your subconscious has about a person or situation

E.g. Jennifer’s mother had a gut feeling thatsomething was wrong when her daughter wasn’t home by 10o’clock.

6. Hands are tied

Meaning: You are prevented from doing something. It is not within your power.

E.g. I’d like to raise people’s salaries but my hands are tied.

7. Joined at the hip

Meaning: To be exceptionally close to someone

E.g. Amy and her boss were joined at the hip; you never saw one without the other.

8. Week at the knees

Meaning: To feel emotion so strongly that it makes you feel unstable on your feet.

E.g. The thought of kissing him made me go weak at the knees.

9. Achilles heel

Meaning: A weakness that can result in failure

E.g. Maths has always been my achilles heel.

10. Find your feet

Meaning: To adjust to a new place or situation

E.g. Did it take you long to find your feet when you started your new job?

Body Idioms | Image

Body Idioms with ESL image

Body Idioms in English