Tuesday, May 11, 2010

idioms

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is not compositional — that is, whose meaning does not follow from the meaning of the individual words of which it is composed. For example, the English phrase "to kick the bucket" means "to die". A listener knowing the meaning of kick and bucket will not necessarily be able to predict that the expression can mean to die. Idioms are often, though perhaps not universally, classified as figures of speech.

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