Idioms & Phrase (B), Study Notes, Material - DSSSB exam

Idioms and Phrases beginning with Alphabet B

1. Back to square one
   Meaning: To be back at the starting point of something.
   Example: I picked up all the leaves and branches from my lawn yesterday but there was a storm last night and now I’m back to square one.
   
   
2. Back on one’s feet: 
   Meaning: to be healthy again after sickness.
   Example: I couldn’t do anything for two weeks while I had the flu but now I’m back on my feet.
   
   
3. By hook or by Crook
   Meaning: At any cost /by the fair or unfair mean.
   Example: I decided that I was going to get that job by hook or by crook.
   
   
4. Beat the air
   Meaning- do the useless effort
   Examples: The candidates for office were so much alike that we thought our vote amounted to beating the air.
   
   
5. Bed of thorns
   Meaning: Full of difficulties
   Examples: Life of an ill person always remains a bed of thorns.
   
   
6. Beat about the bush
   Meaning: To discuss a topic without being specific about anything
   Examples: Don't beat around the bush. Just tell me where my brother is?
   
   
7. Bag and baggage
   Meaning: (with) all one’s belongings.
   Example: Tired of their tantrums, the landlady asked her tenants to vacate the house, bag, and baggage, in a week’s times.
   
   
8. Blue-eyed boy
   Meaning: a man who is liked and admired by somebody in authority.
   Example: She gets the charge of all the assignment except the finance, which is kept for the blue-eyed boy.
   
   
9. Bread and Butter
   Meaning: someone’s livelihood.
   Example: Teaching classical music to young boys and girls is her bread and butter.               
   
10. Burn the candle at both the ends
    Meaning: exhaust someone’s energies or resources by leading a hectic life.
    Example: She has been burning the candle at both ends by doing a full-time job and preparing for her International English Language Test exams.
    
    
11. Bury the hatchet
    Meaning: make peace; end a quarrel, settle one’s differences to become friends again.
    Example 1: The two neighbouring countries India and Pakistan have often been advised by the world bodies to bury the hatchet for their own progress.
    
    
12. Bury head in the sand
    Meaning: refuse to think about an unpleasant situation, hoping that it will improve so that you will not have to deal with it.
    Example: Parents and Principal said ragging was being ignored and accused the girl's hostel’s warden of burying her head in the sand, in Perth city of Australia.
    
    
13. Break a leg
    Meaning: good luck, best wishes, to wish someone luck especially before a performance
    Example: “Break a leg!” I shouted out to him before he rushed in for his auditions.
    
    
14. Born with a silver spoon in their mouth
    Meaning: To be born to parents who are rich and have a good social rank.
    Example: He does not need this job as much as I do, he is born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
    
    
15. Beyond the pale
    Meaning: An unacceptable way to express something, Something that is not considered decent.
    Example: They broke up because her behavior was simply beyond the pale.