5 scary English idioms - Learn English Expressions

Today we're doing some scary expressions that we use all the time

If you're scared of skeletons, too bad!

Did you know that there's a scary skeleton

Living inside you right now!?

"To have some skeletons in your closet" or "To have a skeleton in your closet"

This expression suggests that you have killed someone

and put the body in your closet

but now of course a "skeleton in your closet"

just means you have a very bad hidden secret

If anyone found out, it would be very bad for you. It might ruin you!

So, typically if you think someone has a very bad secret

maybe they killed someone

something they've done is very bad

I don't trust this guy

You might say "Hmm I bet that guy has a few skeletons in his closet!"

It's super interesting how expressions evolve over time

This expression might sound familiar because it's quite similar to

"To be in the closet"

"To be in the closet" means you're gay but it's kept a secret

You "are IN the closet"

and if you tell people for the first time that you're gay

You're now open about being gay

You "come out of the closet"

or more simply, you "come out"

and at that stage you "are out" to "be out"

that's the expression

Then, to "out" someone means you reveal someone's secret

that they did not want people to know

not necessarily about being gay but something that they didn't want anyone to know

So if you tell someone secret to everyone, you "out" them for example

Allen didn't want anyone to know that he's secretly an alien

Janet, his co-worker, told everyone in the office that he's actually an alien

Thanks, Janet!

"As dead as a dodo"

The dodo has been dead since around 1690 so definitely

this animal is not alive anymore

So when something is no longer an issue it's no longer relevant

Everyone knows this thing is dead

literally or figuratively

It is "as dead as a dodo"

or more fun: "As dead as disco"

for example

Did you kill my husband, like I asked?

Sure did, Ma'am! He's as dead as disco!

A bucket list

a bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die so for example

swimming with dolphins going skydiving seeing the Grand Canyon these are things

that might be on your bucket list

Let me know in the comments, what is on your bucket list?

Next one is "the graveyard shift"

Working a graveyard shift

typically means you work the very very LATE shift at work

if you work the

midnight to 8:00 a.m. shift you are working the graveyard shift

Have you ever worked the graveyard shift? Do you now work the graveyard shift?

This goes nicely with "Saved by the Bell"

Okay, class today we're doing presentations

Does everyone have their presentation finished?

Timmy, you are next will you please do your presentation for the class

Okay I'm sorry Timmy we don't have time today

tomorrow you'll do your presentation

Timmy just got Saved by the Bell

He escaped a difficult situation

because something interrupted

and in that situation you say you are Saved by the bell!

Phew! No more time! Saved by the Bell!

so usually time interrupts like the end of class the end of a meeting something like that

One possible origin for this expression comes from the 1500s

apparently people were buried alive quite often they would sometimes find

scratch marks on the lids of coffins which made people think

"Oh! Maybe we should check if people are really dead or not!"

I mean medicine in the 1500s wasn't exactly amazing and apparently it

happened so often that Chopin's last words were

So they started tying string to the

wrists of dead people burying them having the string go through the coffin

through the ground and up above the grave attached to a bell so if they woke

up two days later, Romeo and Juliet style, they could ring the bell

someone could quickly dig them up and save them

Saved by the Bell!

And of course someone had to be there in the very late hours from about midnight to

8:00 a.m. to watch the graves to listen for bells to save people who had been buried alive

that person was working - you guessed it - the "graveyard shift"

It has been argued that this story is bollocks it kind of sounds like bollocks

and in fact this expression comes from boxing

When a boxer is fighting, and he's

almost knocked out but then all of a sudden ding-ding-ding end of the round

the boxer is saved, literally, by the bell

this one makes more sense

The bell above a grave thing just sounds more fun though

I don't know

I prefer to believe the grave one, because it's terrifying

But I'm not a historian

If you're a historian, please tell me what really happened

Because that, the bell with the grave thing...

That's just cray cray! (Crazy)

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