Just putting a little worksheet. The venn diagram of topics I’m tasked with is animals and idioms. So if you’ve got any ideas to add to the list let me know. Stuff like “a dog’s breakfast” is perfect because there’s an easy visual component to that. I’m googling at the same time but I thought you all might have some funny ideas.
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A pigs ear=a mess
It’s rainin 🐱 and 🐶.
🐘 in the room.
I could eat a 🐴
You’re a chicken, as in scared
Working like a dog
As quiet as a mouse
That’s the badger – ‘that’s the one’
might be very localised, but British nonetheless
That’s the badger – ‘that’s the one’
might be very localised, but British nonetheless
Mad as a box of frogs?
kettle of fish
an enigma, I think
Something smells fishy
can of worms, kill two birds with one stone, let the cat out of the bag, cat got your tongue are the ones off the top of my head
Not sure if this is British, but the cat’s pajamas
Frog in the throat: When you get phlegm in the throat
Stop badgering me: Stop bothering me
Dog and Bone: A phone (cockney)
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink: You can’t force someone to do something.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing
A black sheep
A sitting duck
“When pigs fly” for unlikely or impossible events
Pigs ear into a silk purse.
Made a pigs ear out of that.
Raining cats and dogs.
Barking up the wrong tree?
Cat that got the cream.
Mad as a box of frogs.
Can swing a cat in here. (Though technically I think it’s about a whip)
Elephant in the room.
Hungry as a horse/could eat a horse.
Shaking like a shitting dog. (More a simile)
Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
Let the cat out the bag.
Curiosity killed the cat.
Like herding cats. (Though I prefer like pulling teeth)
Give the dog a bone.
Going to see a man about a dog. (More a euphemism)
Birds eye view?? (Not really an idiom but adjacent.)
All bark and no bite.
Like a fish out of water.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Goose egg(s): 000000, score of 0 in a game, or a loss
ETA:
There’s actually a lot of goose ones now that I think about it.
Going on a wild-goose hunt
Getting goosebumps
Silly as a goose
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander
To cook one’s goose
To kill the goose that laid the golden egg
Happy as a clam.
(Which apparently is supposed to be “Happy as a clam at high water” when they are covered with water and predators can’t get them)
Australian localized
He’s got kangaroos loose in the top paddock.
(Which means he’s crazy or a bit weird)
Like pearls before swine.
*This is interesting because it exists in Japanese too (豚に真珠 buta ni shinju)
Wet hen, cold fish, dark horse, snake in the grass.
To go by Shanks’s pony (i.e. by walking)
“Talk the legs off a running duck” – to describe someone who talks a lot
The bees knee’s 🐝
Hotter than two rats fornicating in a wool sock.
Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. 🙊
She slurped me serpent
Donkey punch
Wait…
Strong as an ox
Happy as a pig in shit/mud
Cat got your tongue
Don’t count your chickens
Elephant in the room
Crooked as a dog’s hind leg, as the crow flies, raining cats and dogs, chicken out, clam up, cat got your tongue?, copy cat, dog days, dropping like flies, eager beaver, hold your horses, kill two birds with one stone, get the lion’s share, making a beeline, monkey see monkey do, rat race, smell a rat, straight from the horses mouth, take the bull by the horns, until the cows come home….let me know if you need anymore, a taught a lesson at one stage around animal idioms so I have thousands!