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A list of phrases about household items

A list of phrases about household items

We are surrounded by household items, so it isn't surprising that we include them in our everyday idioms. Shakespeare gave us the expression household words; here's another form of household words - a list of phrases about household items:

A different kettle of fish

A golden key can open any door

A skeleton in the closet

A watched pot never boils

A drop in the bucket

A fly in the ointment

A place for everything and everything in its place

A red rag to a bull

As black as Newgate's knocker

As daft as a brush

As dead as a doornail

As snug as a bug in a rug

Bag and baggage

Bell, book and candle

Between you, me and the bed-post

Between two stools

Born with a silver spoon in one's mouth

Brummagem screwdriver

Bun in the oven

Bury the hatchet

By hook or by crook

Call a spade a spade

Can't hold a candle to

Daft as a brush

Don't wash your dirty linen in public

Go to the mattresses

Going to hell in a handbasket

Grandfather clock

Handbags at ten paces

Have an axe to grind

In the doghouse

Keep your nose to the grindstone

Kick the bucket

Lay it on with a trowel

Let the cat out of the bag

Lock stock and barrel

My cup runneth over

Nice kettle of fish

Not worth the candle

Out of the frying pan into the fire

Point Percy at the porcelain

Praying at the porcelain altar

Pretty kettle of fish

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps

Put a spanner in the works

Raining stair-rods

Skeleton in the closet

Sleep on a clothesline

Sleep like a top

Storm in a teacup

Strain at the leash

Strike while the iron is hot

Take a back seat

Take down a peg or two

Tempest in a teapot

The fly in the ointment

The pot calling the kettle black

The wrong side of the blanket

Throw a spanner in the works

Throw in the towel

Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire

Up the apples and pears

Upset the apple-cart

Use a sledgehammer to crack a nut

Gary Martin - the author of the phrases.org.uk website.

Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.

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