Home > Blossary: Idioms from English Literature
English literature, particularly fairy tales, stories and ballads are rich with idiomatic expressions and idioms. They are widely used in everyday speech. So let's see their origin.

Category: Literature

11 Terms

Created by: Tatevik888

Number of Blossarys: 5

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Smiling very broadly. (Alludes to a grinning cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.) There he stood, smiling like a Cheshire cat, waiting for his weekly pay. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ...

Domain: Literature; Category: Fiction

“An average Joe” is an ordinary person without anything exceptional about them. Origin is from the novel “Johnny Got His Gun” written by Dalton Trumbo in 1971. Joe, a young American soldier, is hit ...

Domain: Literature; Category: Fiction

Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in The New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World and Welcome ...

Domain: Literature; Category: Fiction

Uncle Tom and Cobbleigh and all (from the ballad Widdicombre Fair) is becoming old-fashioned but is used humorously to mean “and the rest”. "Widecombe Fair", also called Tom Pearce (sometimes ...

Domain: Literature; Category: Fiction

The expression "Barkis is willing" first appeared in Charles Dickens' well-known classic "David Copperfield". Barkis is the name of one the characters in the novel. He keeps sending a message through ...

Domain: Literature; Category: Fiction

The phrase “Modern day Robin Hood” is used to describe a person, who robs rich people to help poor ones. The anthroponymic phrase derives from the worldwide famous “The merry adventures of Robin ...

Domain: Literature; Category: Fiction

It is difficult to find a young person, who has not heard about the fantastic tale about Peter Pan. Written by the Scottish novelist and playwright James Matthew Barrie, the tale is about a ...

Domain: Literature; Category: Fiction

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