Idiom in English

Idioms Describing People

A.    Positive and negative qualities

Positive	Negative
She has a heart of gold [Very kind, generous] He’s a good as gold [generous, helpful, well-behaved used generally for children]	She’s as hard as nails [no sympathy for others] He’s rather a cold fish. [distant, unfriendly]

Note also:

He’s such an awkward customer. [difficult person to deal with]

She’s pain in the neck/ass. Nobody likes her. [nuisance, difficult, lunatic]

He gets on everyone’s nerves. [irritates everybody]

B.     People ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ qualities

Fast	Slow
He’s very quick off the marks; he always gets things before everybody else. [one step ahead] You’ve asked him to marry you! You’re fast worker! You only met him three weeks ago!	I was a bit slow off the marks; the job had been filled by the time I got he forms. Come on1 Hurry up! You’re such a slow-coach!

C.     How people relate to the social norm

She’s a bit of an odd-ball; very strange.         [peculiar, strange]

He’s really over the top.          [very exaggerated in behavior]

He’s round the bend, if you ask me.   [absolutely crazy/mad]

My politics are very middle-of-the-road. [very normal; no radical ideas; neither left-nor right-wing; netral]

D.    Who’s who in the class? Idioms for ‘people in the classroom’

Teacher’s pet [the student who always get good marks and always doing the homework on time, she/he never makes a mistake, the person who is teacher’s favourite].

Mary’s top of the class [the one who get the best marks].

A real know-all [in indonesia we called “sok tau”; an irritating person who knows everything].

A bit of a big head [cocky; someone who thinks they are the best and says so].

A lazy-bones [a person whois very lazy].

A sleepy head. [Always sleepy every time]

Idioms describing feelings or mood

A.    Positive feelings, moods and states

Jo’s as happy as the day is long. [extremely content]

Mary seems to be on cloud nine these days. [extremely pleased/happy]

Everyone seemed to be in high spirits. [lively, enjoying things]

She seems to be keeping her chin up. [happy despite bad things/ bahagia walaupun sedih]

To be over the moon [Bahagia]

To feel/ be as pleased as punch.

B.     Negative feelings, moods and states

He had a face as long as a fiddle. [looked very depressed/sad]

She certainly looked down in the dumps. [looked depressed/sad]

Gerry is in a (black) mood. [a bad mood/temper]

Mark was like a bear with a sore head. [extremely irritable]

To feel/be a bit down.

To feel/ be as pleased as punch.

C.     Physical feelings and states

I could eat a horse. [very hungry]

I am feeling all in. [exhausted]

You’re looking a bit under the weather. [not very well/ill]

She looked, and felt, on top form. [in good physical condition]

I suddenly felt as if my head was going round.

I was almost at death’s door last week! [very sick or ill]

Old Nora’s as fit as a fiddle. [very fit indeed]

D.    Fear/fright

She was scared stiff. [very scared]

She frightened the life out of him. [frightened him a lot]

We were all shaking in our shoes. [trembling with fear]

The poor lad (anak muda laki2) was scared out of his wits . [very scared indeed]

I jumped out of my skin when I heard the bang. [very a big jump]

Remember :

There is an element of exaggeration in these idioms; they make comments on the situation and lighten the tone of what you are saying. So use them only informally.