American English Idiomatic Expressions in 52 Weeks :
An Easy Way to Understand English Expressions and Improve Speaking

How can English language learners increase fluency and comprehensibility in their spoken English? The ability to communicate accurately and effectively using English idioms is more important than ever in the globalized economy. English as a Second Language (ESL) students face difficulties learning English idioms. Non-native speakers often find it very difficult to understand the full meaning of English language conversations because, in many cases, these discussions contain a large number of idioms. Learning idioms is especially challenging because, compared to standard English vocabulary, understanding these expressions is not found by referring to a dictionary. To assist the 2nd language learner in understanding the meaning of idioms, the American English Idiomatic Expressions in 52 Weeks provides English language learners with a systematic and structured week-by-week method in which to understand and acquire American English idioms. The classification system created was intended to be intuitive, practical and simple for ESL learners by placing idioms into functional and direct categories.

All Idiom Categories

Money Category Idioms: Referring to currency or a measure of wealth
ante up	as poor as a church mouse	at face value
ball park figure	bang for your buck	blow a bundle
blow your/his/her wad	bring home the bacon	burn a hole in one’s pocket
cash cow	cash in	chip in
cash in on	cash on the barrelhead	caught short
chicken feed	chunk of change	cost a pretty penny
cost an arm and a leg	deep pockets	draw in one’s horns
drop a bundle	drop a bundle	face value
fat cat	flat broke	foot the bill
for a song	fork out	fork over
freeload	from hand to mouth	from rags to riches
give an arm and a leg	go broke	go Dutch
gravy train	grease one’s palm	in kind
greenback	hand to mouth	hard up
have deep pockets	highway robbery	in deep
in the black	in the hole	in the market for
in the red	itching palm	in the hole
jack up	keep books	kickback
keep one’s head above water	kick over	lay away
lay out	layaway plan	little steep
live from hand to mouth	loaded	make a killing
lose one’s shirt	make a bundle	make a living
make ends meet	money to burn	nest egg
on a shoestring	on credit	on easy street
on the block	on the dole	on the house
on the make	on the mend	paltry sum (a)
pay dirt	pay off	pay through the nose
pick up the tab	piggy bank	pinch pennies
pony up	pretty penny (a)	prey on (upon)
put the bite on someone	put up	rake in the money
ring up	rip off	rob Peter to pay Paul
run through	salt away	scrape together
set (one) back	set up	shake down
shell out	shoot one’s wad	split the difference
splurge on something	stone broke	strapped for cash
strike it rich	take a bath	take a beating
take in (money)	take someone to the cleaners	take to the cleaners
tight squeeze	tighten one’s belt	tourist trap
trade something in	two bits	upper crust
well heeled	well off	write off
worth a cent	worth one’s salt	well to do