6 crazy animal idioms!

Audio: 4 min. 29 sec.

Who doesn’t love animals?

Whether you have a cat, a dog or another cute furry baby, animals are an important part of all our lives.

So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that in English we have many different expressions and terms that are based on a variety of creatures from around the world.

Let’s take a look at six of these expressions and sayings, as well as their origins!

It’s raining cats and dogs!

We use this expression when there is really heavy rain falling.

Although there are some mixed histories about why we say it, it is strongly believed that in the past when there were more animals on the street, when it rain poured down there would be a lot of cats and dogs pushed out from their homes on the street, meaning that people would suddenly see a lot of animals on the road during bad weather.

Let the cat out of the bag

When the cat is let out of the bag, it means that a secret has been revealed.

If you’re trying to plan a surprise party for someone but accidentally tell them about it, then the cat is out of the bag and now they know.

While the origin of this expression is unclear, a popular theory was that baby pigs would be sold in bags for meat, but scammers would hide a cat in the bag instead and quickly leave after they made their sale, with their unlucky customer only realising the trick after the cat jumped out of the bag.

Rat Race

The Rat Race is a way people refer to the daily work experience when living in a place that has a lot of competition and repetition.

We use this expression because it is supposed to be similar to rats in a maze.

If you have ever seen a scientific experiment using rats, you’ve probably seen rats just running from one end of a box to another with no clear goal.

When used for people, we imagine that we and all the other workers around us in the city are trapped in a box like that, running around with no real idea of what we’re doing or why, just that we have to do it.

Get the lion’s share

The lion’s share is the main part of a whole.

When someone receives the lion’s share of something, it means they receive the bulk of it.

We usually use this expression to mean a reward or something good, like to receive the lion’s share of the prize meaning that you received more than 50% of it.

However, this expression can be used more broadly as well, such as a skilled employee receiving the lion’s share of work tasks in his team.

Many people think of how big and impressive the lion is when they consider this idiom, but the origin is actually connected to an old Latin story how about the lion, the king of the beasts, decides he deserves more than just a fair share and will hurt his partners if they don’t give him their own portions of a prize.

A little bird told me

Similar to number 2, this expression also has to do with the sharing of secrets.

When we learn a secret from someone, but we want to keep their identity hidden, we can refer to them as a little bird.

“How did you know about the surprise party?” “A little bird told me.”

Throughout history and culture birds have often been seen as messengers so there are various potential origins for this expression, but the oldest one seems to come from the bible, in which God says that birds can report any mistakes you make.

Let sleeping dogs lie

When we have a situation that is a problem but could become even worse if we interfered or acted, we use this expression.

Most likely the same as someone encountering a sleeping dog when they are going somewhere they are not supposed to, this idiom expresses the desire to avoid causing further trouble by leaving the dog (or problem) alone.

These are only a few of the kinds of animals mentioned in idioms.

It might be worth looking up your favourite animal in English and seeing if they have any special expressions or ideas connected to them!