English Idioms Vocabulary 2022 Complete Edition

Clip someone’s wings
Meaning: To limit someone's power, freedom, or comfort.
Example: Her parents clipped her wings by refusing to pay for her
luxurious life.

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Close the door/stable door after the horse has bolted
Meaning: To emphasize that it is too late to take action to prevent
something undesirable/unwanted from happening, because it has already
happened.
Dialogue example:
Speaker A: Hello sir! We would like to offer you a free alarm system for
your store.
Speaker B: Thanks for the offer, but I've already been robbed, so it's a bit
late to close the door after the horse has bolted.
Come a cropper
Meaning: To fail badly; to fall down.
Example: Investors have come a cropper on this project; Dan came a
cropper on the ski slopes and broke his arm.
Come from behind
Meaning: To win unexpectedly while in a losing position.
Example: The red team came from behind to beat the green team 6-5.
Cook someone’s goose
Meaning: To ruin someone's plans; prevent success.
Example: This front-page scandal news will surely cook his goose.
Cook the books
Meaning: To falsify a company's financial records.
Example: He made thousands from cooking the books before the fraud
department caught him.
Couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag

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Meaning: Weak or ineffective; without much energy or ability.
Example: He’s absolutely useless as an ally - he couldn't fight his way out
of a paper bag!
Counsel of despair
Meaning: An admission of defeat or failure.
Example: It is sad to hear such a counsel of despair from our government
about the situation with our economy.
Crawl out of the woodwork
Meaning: To suddenly or unexpectedly appear after a long time (usually for
selfish purposes).
Example: After his song became a number one hit, his ex-girlfriend came
crawling out of the woodwork.