An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase.
Here are the list of idioms starting with Q.
Idioms Starting with Q
1. Quarrel with bread and butter
Meaning: Bread and butter, here, indicate the means of one’s living. (That is why we say ‘he is the bread winner of the family’). If a sub-ordinate in an organization is quarrelsome or if he is not patient enough to bear the reprimand he deserves, gets angry and retorts or provokes the higher-up, the top man dismisses him from the job.
So, he loses the job that gave him bread and butter. Hence we say, he quarreled with bread and butter (manager or the top man) and lost his job.
2. Quart into a pint pot
Meaning: If you try to put or get a quart into a pint pot, you try to put too much in a small space.
3. Queen bee
Meaning: The queen bee is a woman who holds the most important position in a place.
4. Queen of Hearts
Meaning: A woman who is per-eminent in her area is a Queen of Hearts.
5. Queer fish
Meaning: A strange person is a queer fish.
6. Queer Street
Meaning: If someone is in a lot of trouble, especially financial, they are in Queer Street.
7. Queer your pitch
Meaning: If someone queers your pitch, they interfere in your affairs and spoil things.
8. Question of time
Meaning: If something’s a question of time, it’s certain to happen, though we don’t know exactly when.
9. Queue jumping
Meaning: Someone who goes to the front of a queue instead of waiting is jumping the queue.
10. Quick as a flash
Meaning: If something happens quick as a flash, it happens very fast indeed.
11. Quick buck
Meaning: If you make some money easily, you make a quick buck.
12. Quick fix
Meaning: A quick fix is an easy solution, especially one that will not last.
13. Quick off the mark
Meaning: If someone is quick off the mark, they are very quick to use, start or do something new.
14. Quick on the trigger
Meaning: Someone who is quick on the trigger acts or responds quickly.
15. Quids in
Meaning: If somebody is quids in, they stand to make a lot of money from something.
16. Quiet as a cat
Meaning: If somebody is as quiet as a cat they make as little noise as possible and try to be unnoticeable.
17. Quiet as a mouse
Meaning: If someone’s as quiet as a mouse, they make absolutely no noise.
18. Quiet before the Storm
Meaning: When you know that something is about to go horribly wrong, but hasn’t just yet, then you are in the quiet before the storm.
Quitters never win; winners never quit If you quit you will never get what you want, but if you keep trying you will find a way to get what you want. (‘Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots’ is a variation accredited to Larry Kersten)
Also Read ==>>
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