Important Idioms and Phrases starting with “P"

Idioms and Phrases

Meaning

Sentence

Pay your dues

Earn a position after a hard work

They want me to resign, but everybody knows that I paid my dues to get this post.

Play away from home

To have fun with someone else

She divorced her husband because he has a habit of playing away from home.

Play second fiddle

To acts as a subordinate to someone/be treated as less important than someone

Ram plays the second fiddle in his own company.

Put the cart before the horse

To put a thing in the wrong order.

Mohit always puts the cart before the horse, when he practices maths.

Put one's shoulder to the wheel

To do a lot of hard work

In constructing this house labors put their shoulder to the wheel.

Put the cat among the pigeons

Create a disturbance in a calm situation

The company put the cat among the pigeons when it announced the new policy.

Put years on

To look old

The family problem put years on Mohit.

Part and Parcel

Unavoidable part

Ram is the part and parcel of this company.

To play fast and loose

Betray someone

Mohit has a habit of playing fast and loose.

Past master

Expert in something

Ram is the past master in maths.

Petticoat government

Rule of a woman

The “petticoat government” under Maham Anaga did triumph.

Piece of cake

A very easy task

To clear SSC is not a piece of cake.

Pie in the sky

Fictional, impracticable

Going to the moon is not pie in the sky.

Put down

Reduce instantly

After army operation, the numbers of terrorist are put down.

Pick holes in another’s coat

To find fault in someone else

We should refrain ourselves from the habit of picking holes in another’s coat.