Learning the idioms with meanings and their use in sentences helps us to empower conversation and English speaking skills. In this lesson, we are going to share with you some interesting and daily used English idioms that starts with letter B along with their meanings and usage in sentences. Let’s explore together…
Idioms Starts with Letter B
In this section, we are going to share with you 73 most common and everyday conversation idioms that start with the letter B in English, categorised into meanings and their use in sentences. Learning the idioms and their use in sentences helps us to understand how we can use these idioms in our conversations. All are given below; let’s learn together…
1. babe in arms
Meaning: an innocent or naive person. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: He’s a babe in arms when it comes to taking girls out.
2. back of beyond
Meaning: the most remote place; somewhere very remote.
Use in sentence: John hardly ever comes to the city. He lives at the back of beyond.
3. back to the drawing-board
Meaning: [it is] time to start over again; [it is] time to plan something over again, especially if it has gone wrong.
Use in sentence: I failed English this term. Well, back to the old drawing board.
4. bag and baggage
Meaning: with one’s luggage; with all one’s possessions. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: Sally showed up at our door bag and baggage one Sunday morning.
5. baptism of fire
Meaning: a first experience of something, usually something difficult or unpleasant.
Use in sentence: My son’s just had his first visit to the dentist. He stood up to the baptism of fire very well.
6. beard the lion in his den
Meaning: to face an adversary on the adversary’s home ground.
Use in sentence: I went to the solicitor’s office to beard the lion in his den.
7. beat about the bush
Meaning: to avoid answering a question or discussing a subject directly; to stall; to waste time.
Use in sentence: Stop beating about the bush and answer my question.
8. beat a (hasty) retreat
Meaning: to retreat or withdraw very quickly.
Use in sentence: The cat beat a hasty retreat to its own garden when it saw the dog.
9. be a thorn in someone’s side
Meaning: to be a constant source of annoyance to someone
Use in sentence: This problem is a thorn in my side. I wish I had a solution to it.
10. bed of roses
Meaning: a situation or way of life that is always happy and comfortable.
Use in sentence: Living with Pat can’t be a bed of roses, but her husband is always smiling.
11. before you can say Jack Robinson
Meaning: almost immediately.
Use in sentence: I’ll catch a plane and be there before you can say Jack Robinson.
12. be getting on for something
Meaning: to be close to something; to be nearly at something, such as a time, date, age, etc. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: He must be getting on for fifty.
13. beggar description
Meaning: to be impossible to describe well enough to give an accurate picture; to be impossible to do justice to in words.
Use in sentence: Her cruelty to her child beggars description.
14. beg off
Meaning: to ask to be released from something; to refuse an invitation.
Use in sentence: I have an important meeting, so I’ll have to beg off.
15. believe it or not
Meaning: to choose to believe something or not.
Use in sentence: Believe it or not, I just got home from work.
16. bend someone’s ear
Meaning: to talk to someone at length, perhaps annoyingly. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bend your ear for an hour, but I’m upset.
17. be old hat
Meaning: to be old-fashioned; to be outmoded. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: That’s a silly idea. It’s an old hat.
18. be poles apart
Meaning: to be very different, especially in opinions or attitudes; to be far from coming to an agreement
Use in sentence: They’ll never sign the contract because they are poles apart.
19. best bib and tucker
Meaning: one’s best clothing. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: I always put on my best bib and tucker on Sundays.
20. be thankful for small mercies
Meaning: to be grateful for any small benefits or advantages one has, especially in a generally difficult situation.
Use in sentence: Bob was badly injured in the accident, but at least he’s still alive. Let’s be grateful for small mercies.
21. beyond one’s ken
Meaning: outside the extent of one’s knowledge or understanding.
Use in sentence: Why she married him is beyond our ken.
22. beyond the pale
Meaning: unacceptable; outlawed.
Use in sentence: Your behaviour is simply beyond the pale.
23. beyond the shadow of a doubt
Meaning: completely without doubt.
Use in sentence: We accepted her story as true beyond the shadow of a doubt.
24. beyond any shadow of doubt
Meaning: completely without doubt. (Said of a fact, not a person.)
Use in sentence: Please assure us that you are certain of the facts beyond any shadow of doubt.
25. beyond words
Meaning: more than one can say. (Especially with grateful and thankful.)
Use in sentence: Sally was thankful beyond words at being released.
26. bide one’s time
Meaning: to wait patiently
Use in sentence: I’ve been biding my time for years, just waiting for a chance like this.
27. bite someone’s head off
Meaning: to speak sharply and angrily to someone. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: There was no need to bite Mary’s head off just because she was five minutes late.
28. bite the hand that feeds one
Meaning: to do harm to someone who does good things for you.
Use in sentence: I’m your mother! How can you bite the hand that feeds you?
29. bitter pill to swallow
Meaning: an unpleasant fact that has to be accepted.
Use in sentence: We found his deception a bitter pill to swallow.
30. black sheep (of the family)
Meaning: a member of a family or group who is unsatisfactory or not up to the standard of the rest; the worst member of the family.
Use in sentence: Mary is the black sheep of the family. She’s always in trouble with the police.
Letter B Idioms with Meanings
B Letter Idioms with Sentences
31. blank cheque
Meaning: freedom or permission to act as one wishes or thinks necessary.
Use in sentence: He’s been given a blank cheque with regard to reorganizing the workforce.
32. blow hot and cold
Meaning: to be changeable or uncertain (about something). (Informal.)
Use in sentence: He blows hot and cold about this. I wish he’d make up his mind.
33. blow one’s own trumpet
Meaning: to boast; to praise oneself.
Use in sentence: I find it hard to blow my own trumpet, so no one takes any notice of me.
34. blow the lid off (something)
Meaning: to reveal something, especially wrongdoing; to make wrongdoing public. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: The police blew the lid off the smuggling ring.
Related: Idioms Starts with the Letter A
35. blow up in someone’s face
Meaning: [for something] suddenly to get ruined or destroyed while seeming to go well.
Use in sentence: It is terrible for your hopes of promotion to blow up in your face.
36. blue blood
Meaning: the blood [heredity] of a noble family; aristocratic ancestry.
Use in sentence: The earl refuses to allow anyone who is not of blue blood to marry his son.
37. bone of contention
Meaning: the subject or point of an argument; an unsettled point of disagreement.
Use in sentence: We’ve fought for so long that we’ve forgotten what the bone of contention is.
38. born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth
Meaning: born with many advantages; born to a wealthy family; born to have good fortune.
Use in sentence: Sally was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
39. bow and scrape
Meaning: to be very humble and subservient.
Use in sentence: Please don’t bow and scrape. We are all equal here.
40. Box and Cox
Meaning: two people who keep failing to meet. (Although they both sometimes go to the same place, they are never there at the same time. From characters in a nineteenth-century play, one of whom rented a room by day, the other the same room by night.)
Use in sentence: Since her husband started doing night shifts, they are Box and Cox. She leaves for work in the morning before he gets home.
Idioms Start with B
41. break new ground
Meaning: to begin to do something which no one else has done; to pioneer (in an enterprise).
Use in sentence: They were breaking new ground in consumer electronics.
42. break one’s duck
Meaning: to have one’s first success at something. (From a cricketing expression meaning “to begin scoring.”)
Use in sentence: At last Jim’s broken his duck. He’s got a girl to go out with him.
43. break one’s word
Meaning: not to do what one said one would; not to keep one’s promise.
Use in sentence: If you break your word, she won’t trust you again.
44. break someone’s fall
Meaning: to cushion a falling person; to lessen the impact of a falling person.
Use in sentence: The old lady slipped on the ice, but a snowbank broke her fall.
45. break someone’s heart
Meaning: to cause someone emotional pain.
Use in sentence: Sally broke John’s heart when she refused to marry him.
46. break the ice
Meaning: to start social communication and conversation.
Use in sentence: It’s hard to break the ice at formal events.
47. break the news (to someone)
Meaning: to tell someone some important news, usually bad news.
Use in sentence: I hope that the doctor broke the news gently.
48. breathe down someone’s neck
Meaning: to keep close watch on someone, causing worry and irritation; to watch someone’s activities, especially to try to hurry something along. (Informal. Refers to standing very close behind a person.)
Use in sentence: I can’t work with you breathing down my neck all the time. Go away.
49. breathe one’s last
Meaning: to die; to breathe one’s last breath.
Use in sentence: I’ll keep running every day until I breathe my last.
50. bring home the bacon
Meaning: to earn a salary. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: Go out and get a job so you can bring home the bacon.
51. bring something home to someone
Meaning: to cause someone to realize the truth of something.
Use in sentence: Seeing the starving refugees on television really brings home the tragedy of their situation.
52. bring something to a head
Meaning: to cause something to come to the point when a decision has to be made or action taken.
Use in sentence: It’s a relief that things have been brought to a head. The disputes have been going on for months.
53. bring something to light
Meaning: to make something known; to discover something.
Use in sentence: The scientists brought their findings to light.
54. bull in a china shop
Meaning: a very clumsy person around breakable things; a thoughtless or tactless person. (China is fine crockery.)
Use in sentence: Look at Bill, as awkward as a bull in a china shop.
55. burn one’s boats AND burn one’s bridges (behind one)
Meaning: to go so far in a course of action that one cannot turn back; to do something that makes it impossible to return to one’s former position.
Use in sentence: I don’t want to emigrate now, but I’ve rather burned my boats by giving up my job and selling my house.
56. burn the candle at both ends
Meaning: to exhaust oneself by doing too much, for example, by working very hard during the day and also staying up very late at night.
Use in sentence: You can’t keep on burning the candle at both ends.
57. burn the midnight oil
Meaning: to stay up working, especially studying, late at night. (Refers to working by the light of an oil-lamp.)
Use in sentence: I have to go home and burn the midnight oil tonight.
58. bury the hatchet
Meaning: to stop fighting or arguing; to end old resentments.
Use in sentence: All right, you two. Calm down and bury the hatchet.
59. bush telegraph
Meaning: the informal, usually rapid spreading of news or information by word of mouth.
Use in sentence: The bush telegraph tells me that the manager is leaving.
60. business end of something
Meaning: the part or end of something that actually does the work or carries out the procedure.
Use in sentence: Don’t point the business end of that gun at anyone. It might go off.
Idioms Start with B
Letter B Idioms with Meanings
61. busman’s holiday
Meaning: leisure time spent doing something similar to what one does at work.
Use in sentence: Tutoring pupils in the evening is too much of a busman’s holiday for our English teacher.
62. buy a pig in a poke
Meaning: to purchase or accept something without having seen or examined it. (Poke means “bag.”)
Use in sentence: Buying a car without test driving it is like buying a pig in a poke.
63. buy something for a song
Meaning: to buy something cheaply.
Use in sentence: No one else wanted it, so I bought it for a song.
64. by fits and starts
Meaning: irregularly; unevenly; with much stopping and starting. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: By fits and starts, the old car finally got us to town.
65. by leaps and bounds AND in leaps and bounds
Meaning: rapidly; by large movements forward.
Use in sentence: The profits of my company are increasing in leaps and bounds.
Our garden is growing by leaps and bounds.
66. by no means
Meaning: absolutely not; certainly not.
Use in sentence: I’m by no means angry with you.
67. by return post
Meaning: by a subsequent immediate posting (back to the sender).
Use in sentence: Since this bill is overdue, would you kindly send us your cheque by return post?
68. by the same token
Meaning: in the same way; reciprocally.
Use in sentence: The mayor votes for his friend’s causes. By the same token, the friend votes for the mayor’s causes.
69. by the seat of one’s pants
Meaning: by sheer luck and very little skill. (Informal. Especially with fly.)
Use in sentence: I got through school by the seat of my pants.
70. by the skin of one’s teeth
Meaning: just barely; by an amount equal to the thickness of the (imaginary) skin on one’s teeth. (Informal.)
Use in sentence: I got through that exam by the skin of my teeth.
71. by the sweat of one’s brow
Meaning: by one’s efforts; by one’s hard work.
Use in sentence: Tom grew these vegetables by the sweat of his brow.
72. by virtue of something
Meaning: because of something; owing to something.
Use in sentence: She’s permitted to vote by virtue of her age.
73. by word of mouth
Meaning: by speaking rather than writing.
Use in sentence: I learned about it by word of mouth.
So, that was our today’s lesson where we learned all the idioms that start with the English letter B along with their meanings and use in sentences. We can use these idioms in our everyday conversation to show that you’re a good English speaker. You should know the right meaning and their use in sentences of each idiom that you will use in your daily life conversation. We attached a free PDF book of this lesson below. Just click on the below underlined text and get a free PDF book of these idioms starts with the letter B:
Idioms Starts with Letter B.pdf
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