Do you have an "eagle-eye" for a bargain? Have you ever been "hounded" by a "loan-shark" or hustled by a "pool-shark"? Have you been the victim of a "stool-pigeon" or a "rat", or the "scapegoat" for some "foxy" character's misdeeds? Expressions like these lend color and character to our everyday conversation. Many of them are so familiar that we rarely pause to wonder how or when they came into use in the language. But their origins are fascinating to discover and fun to share.

Describes the origins and meanings to a number of animal expressions that are used in everyday language.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,7, University of Erfurt, language: English, abstract: Idioms are quite pleasant and fascinating linguistic phenomena to me. I connect idioms to a creative and competent use of language. Therefore, I can still remember the first idiom I learnt at school: It’s raining cats and dogs. At that time, it was just a funny gimmick during the English lesson. Today the study of English opens new vistas to this. Why isn’t it raining fish? Or one could as: Why isn’t it raining cats and dogs in Germany, but “Bindfäden” (twines)? In this presentation I want to engage in the field of idiomatic expressions containing animal names. As this group is unmanageably wide, I will concentrate on phraseological units that are connected to cats and dogs. After having given a short general linguistic overview of the field concerning idioms, I will concentrate on the possibilities of using idioms in primary class. I will not only give arguments for it but also present material one could use in class.

Offers insight into an autistic person's mind through classic figures of speech that contain confusing or contradictory wording, drawings that show what he believes the expressions mean, and their actual meanings.

Explains the meaning and origin of a selection of English language idioms, using each in a sentence.

If You Have Always Been Curious About Why Curiosity Killed The Cat, This Book Of Animal Sayings Lets The Cat Out Of The Bag! Did You Know That The Abovementioned Cat In The Bag Was Supposed To Be A Fat, Juicy Piglet? Or That People Looking A Gift Horse In The Mouth Were Checking How Long Its Teeth Were? Most Idioms Can Totally Fox You Take Them Literally And You May Be On A Wild Goose Chase. But Try To Find Out What They Really Mean And Where They Have Come From, And You Will End Up Having More Fun That A Barrel Of Monkeys! This Cleverly And Exuberantly Illustrated Book Introduces More Than Eighty Animal Idioms And Phrases, Arranged By Themes, From House Pets To Wild Creatures, From Birds To Insects. With Rollicking, Riotous Drawings Illustrating Each Phrase, It Tells You What The Idioms Mean As Well As The Fascinating Stories Of How, Over The Years, These Everyday Expressions Came To Mean What They Do. Curious? Go On This Entertaining Book Will Have You Making A Beeline For It, Again And Again.