Christine Ammer

A guide to more than 3,500 cliches explains the meanings of such phrases as "give the devil his due," and "gild the lily," and traces the history of these expressions.

This book consists of more than 1,000 animal expressions in everyday language and where they came from. Do you have "an eagle eye" for a bargain? Have you ever been "hounded" by a "loan shark" or hustled by a "pool shark?" Here you can get the lowdown on the fox trot, puppy love, monkeyshines, cowlicks, Cub Scouts, bulls and bears, jaywalkers, gift horses, white elephants, and jailbirds. You may never let "sleeping dogs lie" again.

Some 600 words and phrases from the world of sports that are now part of the vernacular. Terms from baseball, boxing, football, basketball, hockey, cricket and rugby pepper the English language, whether the subject is war (a maneuver in the Gulf War was called a "hail Mary play") to love (she's on the rebound). Baseball has given us southpaw, go to bat, coming out of left field, playing hardball. Boxers had to go the distance unless they were saved...

12 chapters cover 750 color terms in every color family, both familiar and unusual. This crayola box of expressions gives the origin of black sheep, how musicians came to sing the blues, purple prose, green thumb and greenback, orange blossoms, the black hole of Calcutta, and, of course, seeing red and tickled pink.

Covering almost ten thousand idioms and phrases, a reference work on common American vocabulary and idiomatic expressions defines each entry and provides a contextual sentence.