Best idiomatic dictionary for free, A to z

Butterflies in your stomach; To be nervous and stressed, especially before an important event or in anticipation of something.
Button your lip: To tell someone to shut up.

Buy the farm: When somebody has bought the farm, they have died.
By a long chalk: To beat somebody by a long chalk, is to win easily and comfortably.
By a whisker: By a very small amount, like when someone manages to win very narrowly.
By dint of: Meaning ‘because of’ or ‘as a result of’.
By leaps and bounds: Rapidly or very quickly in big steps.
By the backdoor: When something is done by the backdoor, it is not done in a direct and honest way by following proper procedures.

By the book: To do something according to the rules and correctly.
By the by: Used as a way of introducing an incidental topic in a conversation or to say that something is irrelevant.
By the numbers: Something done in a mechanical manner without room for creativity.
By the same token: Because of the same reason or condition; when someone applies the same rule to different situations.
By the skin of your teeth: To just manage to do something, narrowly missing failure or disaster.
The cake’s not worth the candle: The result is not worth the effort put into achieving it.
Call on the carpet: To be summoned for a scolding or lecture by superiors or those in power.
Call the dogs off: To stop attacking or criticising someone.
Call the shots: To give orders and be in charge of something.
Call the tune: Make important decisions about something.
Can of worms: To open a can of worms is to do something that creates serious problems.
Can’t get a word in edgeways: When you are not getting a chance to say anything because the other person is not letting you speak.

Can’t hack it: being unable to perform an act or duty.
Can’t see the forest for its trees: To be so focused on specific details of something that they can’t see the whole picture.
Canary in a coal mine: A warning of an approaching danger.
Card up your sleeve: To have a card up your sleeve is to have a surprise plan which is only going to be revealed when the right time comes.