Friday, October 21, 2016

WEATHER IDIOMS



In England we have a reputation of talking about the weather a lot and as you will see now, this is definitely true! We use lots of metaphors in order to express feelings and sentiments and many of these incorporate the weather. Here are some examples:



·      To be under the weather – to feel unwell
o   E.g. He has gone to bed because he is feeling a bit under the weather.

·      To save for a rainy day – to save something for a time in the future when it may be needed suddenly e.g. money
o   E.g. I’ve saved £20 for a rainy day

·      When it rains it pours – this means that when one bad thing happens, other bad things follow
o   E.g. I fell over on the way to the bus stop, missed the bus and then found out my essay deadline is tomorrow! When it rains it pours!

·      To be snowed under – to have lots of work to do
o   E.g. I have so many deadlines coming up I’m completely snowed under!

·      To break the ice – to do/say something that makes you feel more comfortable around others in a situation
o   E.g. We played some games to break the ice.

·      The tip of the iceberg – when something is the tip of the iceberg it is only a small part of the problem but there is much more to it than is obvious
o   E.g. Global warming has caused the sea level to rise but that is just the tip of the iceberg. (it has caused many other problems too)

·      On cloud nine – to be extremely happy
o   He was on the beach in the beaming sun of the Caribbean – he was on cloud nine!

·      Every cloud has a silver lightning – this means that good things can be a result of bad things
o   E.g. She lost her job last week but now she has the chance to go travelling. Every cloud has a silver lining!

I hope you will find these phrases useful!

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