This
database is a comprehensive collection of all the American idioms and slang available.
American Idioms are many and varied. We hope you enjoy our collection. We are adding more all the time.
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a plan in which someone pays part of some money that is owed and then pays the rest later and the store keeps the item until the full price has been paid
I decided to buy the television set on the department store`s layaway plan.
This bedroom doesn't even have enough room to swing a cat. This colorful phrase evokes strange images of feline cruelty. In fact it has nothing to do with cats, but the real story is at least as cruel. The "cat" is a cat-of-nine-tails, a type of whip used to discipline sailors on old sailing ships. The cat-of-nine-tails has one handle to which is attached nine thin strips of leather, each perhaps three feet long. The cat-of-nine-tails would be used to administer lashings that would sting and leave welts on the recipient. The whippings would take place on the deck, because below deck there was not enough ceiling height to swing a cat-of-nine-tails.
mentally deficient (like a deck of playing cards with some
cards missing)
mentally deficient (like a deck of playing cards with some cards missing)The student told unlikely stories about his life which made us believe that he was not playing with a full deck.