Top 60 Interesting Idioms for Kids with their Meaning!

Last updated: October 24, 2023

Idioms for Kids! This lesson provides a list of 68 interesting idioms with meaning and examples in English. They’re extremely helpful for you or your kids to master your English fluency.

Idioms for Kids with their Meaning

Learn a list of idioms for kids with their meaning.

  • A bull in a china shop 

Meaning: Someone who is very clumsy

  • A grey area

Meaning: Something unclear

  • A little birdie told me

Meaning: Someone told me a secret

  • A rip-off

Meaning: Too expensive

  • Add fuel to the fire

Meaning: To add more to an existing problem

  • As easy as ABC

Meaning: Something is very easy

  • Bee in her bonnet

Meaning: She is upset

  • Birdbrain

Meaning: Someone who is not very smart

  • Busy as a bee

Meaning: To be very active and working hard at something

  • Call it a day

Meaning: Time to quit

  • Cat got your tongue?

Meaning: Why aren’t you talking?

  • Cool as a cucumber 

Meaning: To be very calm under stress

  • Crack a book

Meaning: Open up a book and study

  • Cross your fingers

Meaning: For good luck

  • Cry crocodile tears

Meaning: To pretend to be upset

  • Curiosity killed the cat

Meaning: Asking too many questions may get you in trouble

  • Different kettle of fish

Meaning: Something completely different

  • Doggy bag

Meaning: A bag to take home leftovers from a restaurant

  • Down to the wire

Meaning: At the last minute

  • Draw a blank

Meaning: Can’t remember

  • Fell on deaf ears

Meaning: People wouldn’t listen to something

  • Fill in the blanks

Meaning: Provide more information

  • Fish out of water

Meaning: Being somewhere you don’t belong

  • For the birds

Meaning: Something that is not worth anything

  • Get a kick out of it

Meaning: Really enjoy/like something

  • Get cold feet

Meaning: Be nervous

  • Get off your high horse

Meaning: Quit thinking you are better than others

  • Get your act together

Meaning: Behave properly

  • Give it a shot

Meaning: To try to do something

  • Giving the cold shoulder

Meaning: Ignore someone

  • Goose is cooked

Meaning: Now you’re in trouble

  • Have a change of heart

Meaning: Changed your mind

  • Have mixed feelings

Meaning: Be unsure of how you feel

  • Have second thoughts

Meaning: Have doubts

  • Hold your horses

Meaning: Wait a minute

  • Horse of a different color

Meaning: Something that is quite different, a separate issue

  • Hot dog

Meaning: A person doing athletic stunts that are dangerous

  • I’m all ears

Meaning: You have my full attention

  • In hot water

Meaning: Be in trouble

  • In the same boat

Meaning: Be in the same situation

  • It cost an arm and a leg

Meaning: It was expensive

  • It’s in the bag

Meaning: It’s a certainty

Meaning: To say you can’t be fooled by someone since you have them figured out

  • Let the cat out of the bag

Meaning: Tell a secret

  • Make a mountain out of a molehill

Meaning: Make something unimportant into a big deal

  • Miss the boat

Meaning: You missed your chance

  • Mumbo jumbo

Meaning: To call something total nonsense

  • Night owl

Meaning: Someone who stays up late

  • Out of the blue

Meaning: With no warning

  • Pass with flying colors

Meaning: To succeed at something easily

  • Piece of cake

Meaning: Something very easy

  • Pig out

Meaning: To eat a lot

  • Play it by ear

Meaning: Improvise

  • Put a bug in his ear

Meaning: Make a suggestion

  • Raining cats and dogs

Meaning: It is raining very hard

  • Read between the lines

Meaning: Find the hidden meaning

  • Second to none

Meaning: The best

  • See eye to eye

Meaning: Agree

  • Slipped my mind

Meaning: I forgot

  • Snail’s pace

Meaning: To move extremely slow

  • Speak your mind

Meaning: Say what you really feel

  • Stir a hornet’s nest

Meaning: To cause a lot of trouble

  • Teacher’s pet

Meaning: The teacher’s favorite student

  • The icing on the cake

Meaning: Something additional that turns good into great

  • The world is your oyster

Meaning: You can achieve whatever/go wherever you want

  • When pigs fly 

Meaning: To say something is impossible

  • Wolf in sheep’s clothing

Meaning: A person who pretends to be nice but is not

  • You can’t teach an old dog new tricks

Meaning: It’s harder for older people to learn new things

List of Idioms for Kids | Infographic

List of Idioms for Kids | Infographic 1

Idioms for Kids

List of Idioms for Kids | Infographic 2

Idioms for Kids

List of Idioms for Kids | Infographic 3

Idioms for Kids


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