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The Makeup of Idioms
If you had never heard someone say "We're on the same page," would you have understood that they weren't talking about a book? And the first time someone said he'd "ride shotgun", did you wonder where the gun was? A modern English-speaker knows thousands of idioms, and uses many every day. Idioms can be completely ordinary ("first off", "the other day", "make a point of", "What's up?") or more colorful ("asleep at the wheel", "bite the bullet", "knuckle sandwich"). A particular type of idiom, called a phrasal verb, consists of a verb followed by an adverb or preposition (or sometimes both); in make over, make out, and make up, for instance, notice how the meanings have nothing to do with the usual meanings of over, out, and up.
Examples of idiom in a Sentence
P. J. O'Rourke, New York Times Book Review, 9 Oct. 2005
And the prospect of recovering a nearly lost language, the idiom and scrappy slang of the postwar period …
—Don DeLillo, New York Times Magazine, 7 Sept. 1997
We need to explicate the ways in which specific themes, fears, forms of consciousness, and class relationships are embedded in the use of Africanist idiom …
—Toni Morrison, Playing in the Dark, 1992
The expression “give way,” meaning “retreat,” is an idiom.
rock and roll and other musical idioms
a feature of modern jazz idiom
Rachel Chang, Travel + Leisure, 4 Feb. 2025
Glover’s score — for rock band, piano and acoustic strings — evokes pop idioms while politely sidestepping direct quotation.
—Corinna Da Fonseca-Wollheim, New York Times, 20 Jan. 2025
Today, random image content is indiscriminately reappropriated in residential design, merging idioms and mixing metaphors, resulting in a confused new architectural globalism.
—Richard Olsen, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
The Maze Runner actor sloughs off Roman’s moody persona, replacing that twin’s abrasive bluntness and struggle with idioms with the other’s quick wit and seductive charm.
—Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for idiom 
Dictionary Entries Near idiom
Cite this Entry
“Idiom.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiom. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.
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idiom
noun
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