Language Arts Grade Four

Unit Nine, Lesson Two: Idioms


  1. wire
  2. expire
  3. umpire
  4. inspire
  5. entire
  6. retire
  7. reservation
  8. preserve
  9. protect
  10. county
  1. lookout
  2. forest
  3. timber
  4. lumberjack
  5. fir
  6. cedar
  7. pine
  8. hemlock
  9. redwood
  10. bristlecone
Idioms

Consider this sentence:


  Jill hit the sack at nine o'clock last night.

Does this mean that she actually punched a sack of some kind? Of course not! Most of us understand that it means that she went to bed at nine o'clock. The phrase "hit the sack" is an idiom which is understood to mean "go to bed." Idioms are expressions which have a meaning which is not the same as the meaning of its actual words. Here are some more examples:

  IDIOM					MEANING
  hit the hay			 	go to bed
  break a leg				be successful
  threw in the towel			to give up
  went out on a limb			take a risk
  cut the mustard			do the job

Here are these idioms used in sentences:

  Joe hit the hay after a hard day of work.

  Jill told Jack to go break a leg before going on stage.

  James threw in the towel after being unsuccessful three times in a row.

  Jill went out on a limb to help the boy.

  Jack showed every one that he could cut the mustard.


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