Metaphors and idioms: The Body

The mind is the ocean…. Naked eye… Bad hair day…. Have you ever thought why the brain is a place where fish live and why our eyes have no clothes, or why there is a day of the bad hair? Obviously, the mind has nothing to do with the ocean and our eyes don’t need clothes.

Those phrases are called metaphors. In other words, those are expressions (often found in literature) that describe a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar qualities to that person or object.

They are very similar to idioms. But, what is the difference, you may ask? Well, a metaphor is a word or phrase typically used to describe one thing but unexpectedly used to describe something different. They make English, or any other language, interesting and help create imagery, e.g. he was drowning in paperwork. Idioms, on the other hand, are words and meanings that use words which are different from their literal meaning, and that cannot be guessed from the meanings of their individual words, e.g. he went to drown his sorrows.

Let’s have a look at some metaphors and idioms that use some parts of the body.

1. Which parts of the body would best complete the gaps?

2. Read the sentences below. Can you rephrase the words used metaphorically?

3. Complete the sentences with one of these expressions.