Advanced Idioms
A substantial collection of sophisticated, genuinely useful idioms for everyday life and university, along with the essentials of how to use them well.
More than the sum of the words
Advanced idioms give your English more colour, precision and nuance.
An idiom’s overall meaning is often very different from what the individual words suggest. Advanced idioms tend to be less frequent and more figurative than the idioms most learners meet first, which makes them powerful once you know them — and easy to misuse if you don’t.
This page works two ways at once. It is a short, focused lesson on how to judge an idiom’s meaning, context, register and natural usage — and it is a substantial reference collection you can return to whenever you want to add new idioms to your English.
Before you begin
Sophisticated, not obscure.
On this page, “advanced” does not mean rare, old-fashioned, highly formal, or limited to business or academic writing. It means expressions that are a step up from the most common idioms — still genuinely useful in everyday conversation and in settings like university, just less frequent and slightly more nuanced.
For more common expressions used frequently in everyday English, explore Everyday Idioms.
The Advanced Idiom Library
36 advanced idioms for everyday life and university.
Each entry gives you the meaning, a natural example sentence, and — where it helps — a short note on context or register. Browse in any order, and come back whenever you want to add a few more expressions to your English.
Everyday Conversation & Social Life
beat around the bush
Meaning: avoid saying something directly, often about a difficult or awkward topic.
“Just tell me what happened — stop beating around the bush.”
cut to the chase
Meaning: get to the point quickly, without unnecessary detail.
“We don’t have much time, so let’s cut to the chase: are you in or out?”
take something with a pinch of salt
Meaning: treat something as possibly exaggerated, rather than completely true.
“He tends to exaggerate, so take his story with a pinch of salt.”
Note: American English often uses “a grain of salt” instead — both are widely understood.
put your foot in your mouth
Meaning: say something embarrassing, tactless or awkward, without meaning to.
“I really put my foot in my mouth when I asked about her old job — she’d just been made redundant.”
read the room
Meaning: sense the mood or atmosphere of a situation before speaking or acting.
“He kept joking even after the bad news — he really can’t read the room.”
beat a hasty retreat
Meaning: leave a situation quickly, usually to avoid something awkward or unpleasant.
“As soon as the argument started, I beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen.”
University & Student Life
a steep learning curve
Meaning: something that requires a lot of effort to learn in a short time.
“My first term at university was a steep learning curve — everything felt new at once.”
burn the midnight oil
Meaning: stay up late working or studying.
“She’s been burning the midnight oil all week trying to finish her dissertation.”
hit a wall
Meaning: reach a point where you feel stuck and unable to make further progress.
“I hit a wall halfway through my essay and couldn’t write another word.”
a baptism of fire
Meaning: a difficult introduction to a new situation, often a job or course.
“Her first seminar was a real baptism of fire — she had to lead the whole discussion alone.”
learn the ropes
Meaning: learn how something works, especially a new job, course or system.
“It took me a few weeks to learn the ropes at my new university.”
pull an all-nighter
Meaning: stay awake all night, usually to study or finish work.
“I ended up pulling an all-nighter before the deadline.”
Note: very common in spoken, informal English — not suitable for formal academic writing.
Discussions, Opinions & Communication
read between the lines
Meaning: understand a meaning that is implied rather than directly stated.
“She didn’t say she disagreed, but if you read between the lines, it’s obvious she wasn’t happy.”
the elephant in the room
Meaning: an obvious problem or difficult topic that everyone notices but avoids mentioning.
“Nobody wanted to bring up the missed deadline — it was the elephant in the room throughout the meeting.”
play devil’s advocate
Meaning: argue the opposite side of an issue, often just to encourage discussion.
“I actually agree with you, but let me play devil’s advocate for a moment.”
beg the question
Meaning: strictly, assume the truth of the very point being argued. In everyday use, it is often used more loosely to mean “raise the question”.
“Saying the policy is fair because it treats everyone equally begs the question of what ‘fair’ actually means.”
Note: careful speakers keep this distinct from simply “raising a question” — a genuinely advanced point of usage, even though the looser meaning is now very common.
food for thought
Meaning: something that is worth thinking about carefully.
“Her comments about our plan were definitely food for thought.”
take the words right out of my mouth
Meaning: say exactly what someone else was about to say.
“You took the words right out of my mouth — I was about to suggest the same thing.”
Relationships & Social Situations
throw someone under the bus
Meaning: blame or betray someone, often to protect yourself.
“When the project failed, he threw his teammate under the bus instead of taking responsibility.”
have a soft spot for someone
Meaning: feel a particular fondness for someone.
“She’s always had a soft spot for her younger brother.”
see eye to eye
Meaning: agree with someone, or share the same opinion.
“We don’t always see eye to eye, but we respect each other’s views.”
give someone the benefit of the doubt
Meaning: choose to believe the best about someone, even without full proof.
“I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt this time, since he’s usually reliable.”
hit a nerve
Meaning: upset someone by mentioning something sensitive.
“My comment about her grades clearly hit a nerve.”
bury the hatchet
Meaning: end a disagreement and become friendly again.
“After years of not speaking, the two friends finally decided to bury the hatchet.”
Decisions, Problems & Challenges
move the goalposts
Meaning: unfairly change the rules or requirements of something after it has already started.
“First they said 60% was a pass, then they moved the goalposts to 70%.”
Note: always plural — “the goalposts”, not “the goalpost”.
open a can of worms
Meaning: start something that creates far more problems or complications than expected.
“Asking about the budget again really opened a can of worms.”
Note: always “worms” — the plural is fixed, even though “a can” is singular.
draw a line in the sand
Meaning: set a firm limit that you are not willing to go beyond.
“She drew a line in the sand and said she wouldn’t work any more unpaid overtime.”
paper over the cracks
Meaning: hide a problem temporarily instead of properly solving it.
“Adding more staff for one week just papered over the cracks — the real problem is how the schedule works.”
a blessing in disguise
Meaning: something that seems bad or unlucky at first but turns out to have a good result.
“Missing that flight was a blessing in disguise — the next one was much cheaper.”
the tip of the iceberg
Meaning: a small, visible part of a much larger problem.
“The missed deadline was just the tip of the iceberg — there were much bigger issues with the plan.”
Success, Failure & Contemporary Life
the writing is on the wall
Meaning: there are clear signs that something, usually bad, is going to happen.
“When sales kept falling for months, the writing was on the wall for the shop.”
go against the grain
Meaning: do something that is different from what is usual, expected or accepted.
“Choosing to study part-time went against the grain, but it worked well for her.”
a double-edged sword
Meaning: something that has both a significant advantage and a significant disadvantage.
“Working from home is a double-edged sword — more flexible, but much easier to get distracted.”
against all odds
Meaning: despite great difficulty, when success seemed very unlikely.
“Against all odds, the smaller team won the competition.”
hit the ground running
Meaning: start something with a lot of energy and immediate success.
“She hit the ground running in her new role, finishing two major projects in the first month.”
back to square one
Meaning: back at the starting point, usually after a failed attempt.
“When the funding fell through, the whole project was back to square one.”
The central idea
Every advanced idiom asks you to judge four things.
Before using an idiom from the library above with confidence, it helps to check each of the following.
01
Meaning
What does the expression actually mean, beyond the literal words?
02
Context
Does the situation genuinely call for this particular expression?
03
Register
Does its level of formality suit your audience and purpose?
04
Natural usage
Are you using the exact wording and form the expression normally takes?
Putting it into practice
Meaning, context, register and natural usage — briefly
A quick look at how each of the four checks plays out in real use.
Meaning: the words rarely give it away
Open a can of worms has nothing to do with fishing bait — it means starting something that turns out to be far more complicated than expected. Most advanced idioms simply have to be learned, the way you learned them in the library above.
Context: the right idiom for the right moment
The elephant in the room fits a discussion everyone is avoiding, while hit the ground running fits the start of something new. Using either in the wrong situation can be just as confusing as using the wrong word.
Natural usage: keeping the exact form
Move the goalposts is always plural, and open a can of worms always uses “worms”. The verb can change tense freely — “moved the goalposts”, “is moving the goalposts” — but the core wording of the idiom itself generally cannot.
Conversational
I totally hit a wall halfway through.
Suitable when chatting with a friend or classmate.
More formal
I found it very difficult to continue partway through.
Suitable in an email to a tutor or in a written report.
Conversational
He completely threw her under the bus in the meeting.
Suitable when describing the situation informally afterwards.
More formal
He unfairly placed the blame on her during the meeting.
Suitable in a formal account of what happened.
Common errors
Mistakes are useful when you understand why they happen.
He moved the goalpost after we’d already agreed the deadline.
He moved the goalposts after we’d already agreed the deadline.
The idiom is always plural — “the goalposts” — even though the mistake looks like a small, reasonable change.
That new policy opened a can of worm we weren’t prepared for.
That new policy opened a can of worms we weren’t prepared for.
“A can of worms” keeps “worms” plural even though “a can” is singular — the fixed wording doesn’t follow ordinary grammar logic.
(in a formal incident report) Basically, he threw his colleague under the bus and it wasn’t a good look.
He placed undue blame on his colleague, which was not appropriate.
“Throw someone under the bus” is conversational. A formal report calls for a more neutral, formal alternative, however correctly the idiom itself is formed.
The elephant is in the room of our discussion.
The elephant in the room was the missed deadline.
The idiom is fixed as “the elephant in the room” — it names the topic itself, rather than being rearranged to describe where something is.
I like to swim against the current of fashion. (translated directly from another language)
I like to go against the grain when it comes to fashion.
Idioms rarely translate word for word between languages. English has its own fixed expression for doing something different from what’s expected.
Your turn
Practise using idioms from the library.
These activities are part of the learning process. There are no scores, no grades and no limit on how many times you may try.
What does it mean if a decision “opens a can of worms”?
✅ Exactly! “Open a can of worms” means starting something that turns out to be far more complicated than expected.
❎ Not quite. Picture actually opening a can full of worms — what would happen next?
Think about a small action leading to a much bigger, messier situation.
“I know it’s tempting to change the requirements now, but that would be ___ this late in the project.”
✅ Exactly! “Move the goalposts” means unfairly changing the requirements after something has already started — exactly what this sentence describes.
❎ Not quite. Which idiom is specifically about changing the rules partway through?
Think of a football match where the target keeps moving.
Which of these expressions would be least appropriate in a formal written report?
✅ Exactly! “Pull an all-nighter” is common, informal spoken English — not suitable for formal academic or professional writing, unlike the other three.
❎ Not quite. Three of these are neutral enough to appear in formal writing; one is distinctly informal and spoken.
Think about which one you’d only really say out loud to a friend, not write in a report.
Both “draw a line in the sand” and “move the goalposts” involve limits or rules — but which one means changing the rules unfairly, rather than setting a firm limit?
✅ Exactly! “Move the goalposts” is about someone else unfairly changing the rules. “Draw a line in the sand” is about you setting your own firm limit.
❎ Not quite. One idiom is about setting your own limit; the other is about someone changing the rules on you.
Who is doing the changing in each idiom — you, or someone else?
Try it another way
Complete each idiom.
Type the missing word.
✅ Exactly! “The writing is on the wall” means there are already clear signs of what’s going to happen.
❎ Not quite. Think about a clear warning sign that something is about to happen.
✅ Exactly! To “have a soft spot for someone” means to feel a particular fondness for them.
❎ Not quite. Think about a gentle, tender feeling towards someone.
✅ Exactly! “Back to square one” means back at the starting point, usually after a failed attempt.
❎ Not quite. Think about a board game where you have to start again from the very beginning.
Notice the difference
Correct the idiom mistake.
Rewrite each sentence so the idiom is used correctly.
He moved the goalpost after we’d already agreed the deadline.
✅ Exactly! The idiom is always plural — “the goalposts”.
❎ Not quite. Look closely at “goalpost” — is it singular or plural in the fixed expression?
That new policy opened a can of worm we weren’t prepared for.
✅ Exactly! “A can of worms” keeps “worms” plural, even though “a can” is singular.
❎ Not quite. Check the ending of “worm” — the fixed expression doesn’t follow ordinary singular/plural logic here.
(in a formal incident report) Basically, he threw his colleague under the bus and it wasn’t a good look.
✅ Exactly! “Throw someone under the bus” is conversational — a formal report calls for a plainer, more neutral way of describing what happened.
❎ Not quite. Think about register: this needs to sound like a formal report, not a casual conversation.
Quick review
Four checks. One confident decision.
Meaning — learn what the idiom actually means; the words themselves rarely tell you
Context — check the situation genuinely calls for this particular expression
Register — match the idiom’s formality to your audience and purpose
Natural usage — keep the exact wording and form the expression normally takes
Remember
An idiom is only useful when it is understood, appropriate and natural.
You don’t need to use every idiom in the library above right away. Pick a few that fit your own everyday life or studies, check their meaning, context and register, and come back for more whenever you’re ready.