Here, you will find idioms that start with the letter P.
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Examples of Idioms Starting with R
A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned: a way of saying that one should not waste money but should save it, even if little by little.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs In One Basket:Â to risk losing everything by having only one plan or idea and depending entirely on it for your success.
Page-Turner: a book that is so exciting and engrossing that you cannot stop reading it; a very good book that keeps the reader interested throughout; a book one wants to read quickly without stopping.
Pain in the Neck, a: something annoying or a source of irritation; someone that ‘gets on one’s nerves’.
Paint The Town Red:Â to go out and have a lively good time, to go on a drinking spree and visit many bars and nightclubs, to be boisterous and wild.
Pandora’s Box: a process that, once began, results in many unforeseen problems which were previously covered up.
Par For the Course: normal, expected, or the usual; something that is the usual outcome and is mediocre and unexceptional; something that past experience suggests should be expected.
Pardon My French: a sometimes-humorous apology for bad language or swearing.
Part Of the Furniture: a person who has been in a place so long that he or she seems to be a permanent part of the scenery and is taken for granted, undervalued, or ignored.
Pass The Buck: to avoid responsibility or blame for something by passing it on to another person, or to let another person do something you were supposed to do.
Pass the Hat Around: to collect money by asking for donations from friends, coworkers, or colleagues.
Pay The Piper: to accept and to bear the consequences for some action or circumstance (usually something you’ve done wrong or badly).
Pay Through the Nose: to pay an excessive amount of money for something; to pay much too high a price.
Peeping Tom, a:Â a man who secretly watches others, especially through windows, usually related to sexual gratification; a (sexual) voyeur.
Penny for Your Thoughts, a: an expression used when one wishes to know what is on someone’s mind, typically someone unusually quiet and withdrawn.
Perfect Storm:Â the simultaneous occurrence of rare or chance events that together produce an unusually bad problem or event, often a catastrophic one.
Perish the Thought: used to tell someone not to even think about a negative thing; a wish that something negative mentioned will never happen; a wish that a thought will never become fact or reality.
Peter Out: to become smaller or lesson gradually; to become weaker or less intense before ending completely; etc.
Pick a Fight: to intentionally start an argument or quarrel with someone; to look for oppurtunities to quarrel or argue.
Pick and Choose: to carefully select or choose the best, most desirable, or appropriate option from among a number of options; to be choosy when making a decision about alternatives.
Pick Holes in Something: to find the weak points in someone’s argument, plan, suggestion, idea, or theory; to criticize or find faults in something; to point out the flaws in something.
Pick of the Litter: the best of a group.
Pick Up: to lift someone or something up from a surface; to answer the phone; to go and get someone in a vehicle and give them a ride somewhere; etc.
Piece of Cake: something that is very easy to accomplish.
Pitch Dark: extreme darkness.
Play Cat and Mouse: to toy with someone by saying or doing different things to alternately provoke or thwart another person; a situation in which the advantage shifts from one party to another; etc.
Play Fast And Loose (with someone or something): to do what one wants in a careless, irresponsible, thoughtless, deceitful or immoral way.
Play Hardball: to act aggressively or even ruthlessly to achieve a certain goal, usually in opposition to another person; to be unpleasant and threatening; to act tough and uncompromising.
Play It By Ear: to deal with a situation as it unfolds without a definite plan; to make changes or decisions and proceed gradually as a situation demands, without planning out one’s responses in advance; to improvise.
Play Russian Roulette: to take very large, unpredictable and dangerous risks, potentially fatal; performing any action which, if repeated several times, is likely to have disastrous consequences.
Play Second Fiddle: to be subordinate to someone else; to be of lesser importance.
Pluck Up Courage: to force or will oneself to overcome fear or to be brave; to bolster one’s courage.
Pony Up: to pay what is owed or due; to settle one’s debt.
Pot Calling the Kettle Black: a situation in which one person accuses another of a fault (or faults) that they themselves possess.
Preaching to the Choir: to express one’s viewpoint to people who already hold the same viewpoints.
Proof is in the Pudding, the: the real results of something can only be judged by actual experience or results rather than theory or appearance.
Pros and Cons: the arguments for and against something; the advantages and disadvantages.
Prove Your Mettle: to prove your ability at something by performing well in a difficult situation.
Pull Someone’s Leg: tell someone something that is not true; to try to make someone believe something that is untrue as a way of joking or playing a trick on them; to tease, trick, kid, or make fun of someone lightheartedly.
Put All Your Cards On the Table: to be truthful and reveal your true intentions or plans without holding anything back; to be transparent, especially in business dealings or other negotiations.
Put in One’s Two Cents Worth: to give one’s opinion even when it is not asked for.
Put Off Something: to postpone something; to delay something; to hold for a later time.
Put On: to dress oneself in clothing, jewelry, or to place eyeglasses on one’s eyes; to activate a piece of equipment; to pretend (to feel something); etc.
Put On Airs: to act haughty and superior; to make a show of pride and affect a manner of importance; to pretend to be better than you are.
Put On Your Thinking Cap: to apply yourself to considering a problem and finding a solution to it.
Put Someone Off: to cause someone to dislike someone or something; to persuade someone to delay acting (especially in order to avoid hurting feelings).
Put Someone Out To Pasture: to force someone to stop working because they are considered too old to be effective; to cause someone to retire.
Put Someone Up: to provide a place for someone to stay, usually temporarily; to provide lodgings.
Put the Pedal to the Metal: to do something as fast as possible; to speed up one’s efforts in order to accomplish a task in a shorter period.
Put Up Or Shut Up: to say someone should act on what they have been saying, or stop talking about it; stop complaining about things your not willing to do anything about.
Put Up With: to tolerate or endure without complaining.
Put Your (or One’s) Best Foot Forward: to do your best or present yourself in the best possible way; to make the best impression you can.
Put Your Finger On Something: to be able to understand something or know the reason for it; to describe something; to identify something.
Put Your Foot Down: to demand authoritatively that someone stop doing something or that someone behave the way you want; to act firmly to disallow or stop some action; to emphatically say no.
Put Your Foot In Your Mouth:Â to say something embarrassing, tactless, unintentionally insulting, or socially awkward; to commit a social blunder by saying something foolish.
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth is: to do something rather than just talk about it; to take actions that support your opinion, statements or position; to use your own money in support of something you say your support.
The Pits, to be: to be a very unpleasant, undesirable, or unfortunate thing (situation, circumstance, etc).