Idioms and Phrases

~28 min read · AFCAT English

Per AFCAT paper~3 questions

Weight bandHighest weight

SectionEnglish

Section share≈ 28% of the paper

In 30 seconds

Pattern: An idiom (sometimes inside a sentence, sometimes stand-alone) followed by four meaning options. Pick the closest paraphrase.
Recurrence: Roughly three marks per AFCAT paper. The bank is finite and AFCAT recycles heavily from a list of about 250 idioms across the everyday and bookish ranges.
Trap: A literal reading of the idiom is the planted wrong option in almost every item. Reject it before you compare the survivors.

Overview

Idioms and Phrases appears about 3 times per paper across the last four AFCAT solved papers, placing it in the highest weight band of English.

Idioms and Phrases is one of the most predictable scoring rooms in AFCAT English. Three marks a paper, a known bank, a fixed trap shape, and almost no grammar reasoning involved — if you have learnt the list, the section is a near-automatic 9 marks. If you have not, it becomes guesswork worth zero net marks after negative scoring is applied.

The room rewards mass recall over reasoning. AFCAT does not invent idioms; it lifts them from a small canon that overlaps with CDS, SSC, Bank PO and the Wren-and-Martin tradition. That canon is finite. This page hands you the canon in clean themed tables — body parts, animals, weather, money, colour, bookish, mythological and proverbs — adding up to over 200 idioms grouped so you can revise twenty at a time.

Beyond the bank, the page gives you the 40-second method for handling each item, the two most reliable trap shapes (literal-meaning and partial-match), worked examples in the exact AFCAT mould, and a four-week revision schedule. By the end you should be able to walk into the hall confident that every idiom you meet is either in your list or close enough to one that is.

How AFCAT frames idiom items

The idiom section in AFCAT comes in two shapes. About two-thirds of the time the idiom is bolded inside a short sentence and you are asked to pick its meaning; about one-third of the time it is stand-alone with no sentence context at all.

Item shape	How it reads	What it rewards
Stand-alone idiom	The bold idiom is followed by four meaning options. No sentence.	Pure recall. You either know the idiom or you do not.
Idiom in a sentence	The idiom is embedded; the sentence provides a tone hint (praise, blame, surprise, relief).	Recall plus inference. The tone of the sentence lets you eliminate options with the opposite polarity.
Replace the idiom	The question asks which option could replace the bold portion without changing the meaning.	Recall plus equivalence. The right answer paraphrases, not redefines.

The bank itself splits unevenly. Roughly half the items come from everyday idioms (body parts, animals, colour, weather, money) that any well-read candidate has met. About 30% come from bookish or literary idioms — the ones that decide ranks. The remaining 20% are mythological, historical or distinctly British (Newcastle, Thames, Pyrrhic, Rubicon, Damocles). Plan your revision time in that ratio.

Polarity check: when the sentence frames an idiom positively (praise, relief, success) and one of your candidate options is negative (blame, defeat, exposure), eliminate that option immediately. Half of all partial-match traps fail this single test.

The 40-second method

You should not be spending more than 40 seconds on an idiom item. The room is a recall room, not a reasoning room. Use the following four-step routine.

Read the idiom whole. Treat it as a single unit. Do not parse it word by word — that is how the literal trap snares you.
Reject the literal option first. If the idiom is ‘to let the cat out of the bag’ and one option says ‘to release a cat from a sack’, that option is dead before you look at the others. AFCAT almost always plants this trap.
Apply the closest-paraphrase rule. The right answer paraphrases the idiom in plain words. It is rarely the longest or the most elaborate option. Look for the option that swaps the figurative phrase for one or two literal words with the same meaning.
Use the partial-match rule for survivors. If two options both seem related, pick the one that covers the whole idiom, not just a fragment. ‘Snake in the grass’ means a treacherous person, not merely a hidden one or a dangerous one.

The three trap shapes that survive these four steps are rare. They are: the synonym trap (an option that is a true synonym of one word in the idiom but not the idiom as a whole), the tone trap (an option whose polarity opposes the sentence), and the overcorrection trap (an option that adds a moral judgement the idiom does not carry).

If you blank: guess the option that paraphrases the most familiar word in the idiom. ‘Worth its weight in gold’ — pick the option that mentions value, not the one that mentions weight or precious metal.

Body-part idioms

Body parts are the single richest source of idioms in English and the most frequently tested cluster in AFCAT. Learn the table below cold; expect at least one item from it per paper.

Idiom	Meaning	Sample use
To turn a blind eye	To pretend not to notice	The umpire turned a blind eye to the no-ball.
To turn a deaf ear	To refuse to listen	The minister turned a deaf ear to the protests.
To put one's foot down	To assert oneself firmly	Father put his foot down about the late nights.
To pull someone's leg	To tease in a friendly way	Don't take it seriously; I was only pulling your leg.
To wash one's hands of	To disclaim responsibility for	After the scandal he washed his hands of the firm.
To have a heart of gold	To be very kind	She is strict but has a heart of gold.
To get cold feet	To lose courage at the last moment	He got cold feet before the interview.
To bury one's head in the sand	To refuse to face reality	You can't keep burying your head in the sand about the loan.
To keep one's fingers crossed	To hope for good luck	Keep your fingers crossed for the results.
To bite the bullet	To endure a painful situation bravely	He bit the bullet and finished the report.
To break one's heart	To cause deep sorrow	The defeat broke the team's heart.
To learn by heart	To memorise	She learnt the poem by heart.
To have a finger in every pie	To be involved in many activities	He has a finger in every pie in the town.
To play into someone's hands	To act as the other person wishes	By resigning, he played into the management's hands.
To win by a nose	To win by a narrow margin	The horse won by a nose.
To pay through the nose	To pay an excessive amount	Tourists pay through the nose for water.
To poke one's nose into	To interfere	Stop poking your nose into my work.
To have one's hands full	To be very busy	The principal has her hands full this week.
To rule with an iron hand	To govern strictly	He ruled the regiment with an iron hand.
To live from hand to mouth	To barely earn enough to survive	The family lives from hand to mouth.
To give a cold shoulder	To ignore deliberately	She gave him the cold shoulder at the party.
To get something off one's chest	To confess or unburden	He felt better after getting it off his chest.
To see eye to eye	To agree completely	The two ministers rarely see eye to eye.
To raise eyebrows	To cause surprise or disapproval	His resignation raised eyebrows.
To set one's heart on	To desire intensely	He has set his heart on the academy.
To have the heart in the right place	To have good intentions	He is rough, but his heart is in the right place.
To take to one's heels	To run away quickly	The thief took to his heels.
To bite one's tongue	To stop oneself from saying something	I bit my tongue when he criticised the plan.
To have one's tongue in cheek	To speak with ironic humour	The remark was made tongue in cheek.
To rack one's brains	To think very hard	I racked my brains for the answer.
To pick someone's brains	To seek another's expertise	I picked the senior's brains before the interview.
To shrug one's shoulders	To show indifference	He shrugged his shoulders at the news.
To rub shoulders with	To mix with socially	At the conference he rubbed shoulders with diplomats.
To stand on one's own feet	To be independent	The boy now stands on his own feet.

Animal idioms

Animals are the second-richest cluster. The cat, the dog and the horse alone account for nearly twenty idioms each. Learn at least the thirty below.

Idiom	Meaning	Sample use
A cat-and-dog life	A life full of quarrels	The couple led a cat-and-dog life.
To let the cat out of the bag	To reveal a secret	He let the cat out of the bag about the surprise.
To rain cats and dogs	To rain very heavily	It was raining cats and dogs all evening.
To set the cat among the pigeons	To cause sudden trouble	The leaked memo set the cat among the pigeons.
A dog in the manger	One who prevents others from enjoying what he cannot use	Don't be a dog in the manger about the books.
To go to the dogs	To deteriorate completely	The factory has gone to the dogs.
Let sleeping dogs lie	Do not stir up an old quarrel	Don't bring up that case; let sleeping dogs lie.
Every dog has its day	Everyone gets a chance eventually	Be patient — every dog has its day.
A bull in a china shop	A clumsy person in a delicate situation	He moved through the office like a bull in a china shop.
To take the bull by the horns	To tackle a difficulty head-on	She took the bull by the horns and rang the boss.
To smell a rat	To suspect something wrong	I smell a rat in this whole deal.
A wild-goose chase	A fruitless pursuit	The investigation turned into a wild-goose chase.
A black sheep	An undesirable member of a group	He is the black sheep of an otherwise respected family.
Lion's share	The largest portion	The eldest took the lion's share of the estate.
Crocodile tears	False display of grief	She shed crocodile tears at the meeting.
A snake in the grass	A treacherous person	Be careful — he is a snake in the grass.
To kill two birds with one stone	To accomplish two things with one action	By cycling to office I kill two birds with one stone.
A bird's-eye view	An overall view from above	The map gives a bird's-eye view of the campus.
To eat like a horse	To eat very large quantities	After training he eats like a horse.
To flog a dead horse	To waste effort on something hopeless	Arguing the point further is flogging a dead horse.
To put the cart before the horse	To do things in the wrong order	Discussing decoration before the foundation is putting the cart before the horse.
Straight from the horse's mouth	From the original source	I heard the news straight from the horse's mouth.
A dark horse	An unexpected winner	The dark horse won the squadron prize.
To hold one's horses	To be patient	Hold your horses; the orders aren't out yet.
To have a frog in one's throat	To have temporary hoarseness	I had a frog in my throat during the speech.
A leopard cannot change its spots	People do not change their nature	Don't expect reform — a leopard cannot change its spots.
To buy a pig in a poke	To buy something sight unseen	Inspect the flat first; don't buy a pig in a poke.
An eager beaver	An over-zealous worker	The new cadet is quite an eager beaver.
An early bird	One who arrives or acts early	The early bird gets the best seat.
The elephant in the room	An obvious problem nobody addresses	The funding gap was the elephant in the room.
A white elephant	An expensive but useless possession	The stadium has become a white elephant.
An ugly duckling	An unpromising child who grows into something fine	The shy boy of class six was a real ugly duckling.

Weather and nature idioms

Weather idioms are popular with AFCAT because they double as polarity tests — ‘sunshine’ idioms are positive, ‘storm’ idioms are negative, and the planted trap is usually the opposite-polarity option.

Idiom	Meaning	Sample use
Once in a blue moon	Very rarely	He visits home once in a blue moon.
Out of the blue	Unexpectedly	The transfer order came out of the blue.
A bolt from the blue	A sudden, shocking event	His resignation was a bolt from the blue.
To be on cloud nine	To be extremely happy	She was on cloud nine after the selection.
Every cloud has a silver lining	There is some good in every difficulty	Take heart — every cloud has a silver lining.
Under a cloud	Under suspicion or disgrace	The officer is under a cloud after the audit.
To steal someone's thunder	To take credit meant for another	The minister stole the scientist's thunder.
To weather the storm	To survive a difficult period	The company weathered the storm of 2020.
A storm in a teacup	Great fuss over a trivial matter	The dispute was a storm in a teacup.
To break the ice	To begin conversation in an awkward setting	His joke broke the ice at the gathering.
To skate on thin ice	To take a risky chance	You are skating on thin ice with the regulator.
To take a rain check	To postpone an invitation	I'll take a rain check on dinner.
To save for a rainy day	To set aside for hard times	Always save something for a rainy day.
A fair-weather friend	A friend present only in good times	He turned out to be a fair-weather friend.
To make hay while the sun shines	To use a favourable opportunity	Buy the gear now and make hay while the sun shines.
A ray of hope	A glimmer of optimism	The new policy is a ray of hope.
To go with the wind	To vanish	His promises went with the wind.
To get wind of	To hear a rumour	The press got wind of the deal.
To take the wind out of someone's sails	To frustrate by anticipating	Her counter-argument took the wind out of his sails.
Calm before the storm	An unnatural quiet preceding trouble	The week before exams felt like the calm before the storm.

Money and value idioms

Money idioms in AFCAT lean on commerce and gambling vocabulary. Many appear in finance-toned sentences; the right answer is almost always the one that swaps the metaphor for a plain monetary phrase.

Idiom	Meaning	Sample use
To cost an arm and a leg	To be very expensive	The new car cost him an arm and a leg.
To break the bank	To exhaust one's funds	A small trip will not break the bank.
To be in the red	To be in debt	The firm has been in the red for two years.
To be in the black	To be making profit	For the first time the unit is in the black.
Worth its weight in gold	Extremely valuable	Good advice is worth its weight in gold.
To make a fast buck	To earn money quickly, often dubiously	He is just trying to make a fast buck.
To bring home the bacon	To earn a living	She works two jobs to bring home the bacon.
To live beyond one's means	To spend more than one earns	They have always lived beyond their means.
To put one's money where one's mouth is	To back words with action	If you believe in the scheme, put your money where your mouth is.
To foot the bill	To pay the cost	The unit footed the bill for the function.
Money for jam	Easy money	The job was money for jam.
A king's ransom	A very large sum	The painting fetched a king's ransom.
To go Dutch	To share the bill equally	At dinner we went Dutch.
To pinch pennies	To economise tightly	The widow pinched pennies to educate her son.
A penny for your thoughts	Tell me what you are thinking	You look pensive — a penny for your thoughts.
To pay through the nose	To pay much more than fair	Late buyers paid through the nose for tickets.
To strike it rich	To become suddenly wealthy	He struck it rich in the chip business.
To turn a profit	To earn money on a venture	The canteen turned a profit in its first month.
To tighten one's belt	To economise out of necessity	Households are tightening their belts.
To cut one's coat according to one's cloth	To live within one's means	Cut your coat according to your cloth and save the rest.

Colour idioms

Colour idioms are short, vivid and easy to mis-pair. Note that ‘red’ carries at least four distinct meanings depending on context (anger, debt, celebration, official welcome).

Idiom	Meaning	Sample use
A red-letter day	A memorable, important day	Selection day was a red-letter day for the family.
To see red	To become very angry	The remark made him see red.
To paint the town red	To celebrate noisily	After commissioning they painted the town red.
To roll out the red carpet	To give a grand welcome	The base rolled out the red carpet for the chief.
Red tape	Bureaucratic delay	The file is stuck in red tape.
To catch red-handed	To catch in the act	The accountant was caught red-handed.
A green thumb	A talent for gardening	His mother has a green thumb.
Green with envy	Extremely jealous	He was green with envy at her promotion.
To give the green light	To grant permission	The committee gave the green light to the project.
A white elephant	A costly but useless possession	The auditorium is a white elephant.
A white lie	A harmless untruth	It was a white lie to spare her feelings.
To show the white feather	To behave as a coward	He showed the white feather at the first challenge.
A black sheep	An undesirable member	He is the black sheep of the family.
To blacklist	To declare unwelcome	The contractor was blacklisted.
In black and white	In writing	Get the agreement in black and white.
To feel blue	To feel sad	He felt blue after the transfer.
A blue-blooded	Of noble birth	She belongs to a blue-blooded family.
Yellow-bellied	Cowardly	The deserter was branded yellow-bellied.

Bookish and literary idioms — the differentiator

This is the half of the bank that decides AFCAT English ranks. Everyone learns the everyday list; the candidates who finish in the top decile are the ones who also know the bookish bench. Aim to drill these thirty until you can recite each meaning in five seconds.

Idiom	Meaning	Sample use
To haul over the coals	To reprimand severely	The principal hauled him over the coals.
To carry coals to Newcastle	To do something pointless	Sending sweets to a confectioner is carrying coals to Newcastle.
To throw up the sponge	To give up; admit defeat	After three rounds he threw up the sponge.
To cool one's heels	To be kept waiting	I cooled my heels for an hour at the office.
To bell the cat	To do a risky thing for the common good	Who will bell the cat and raise the issue?
To take time by the forelock	To seize an opportunity quickly	Take time by the forelock and apply now.
To make a clean breast of	To confess fully	He made a clean breast of his mistakes.
To play to the gallery	To act for cheap popularity	The leader played to the gallery throughout the rally.
To rest on one's laurels	To be content with past success	The champion cannot afford to rest on his laurels.
To eat humble pie	To apologise meekly	He had to eat humble pie before the committee.
To set the Thames on fire	To do something remarkable	He may not set the Thames on fire, but he is dependable.
To split hairs	To quibble over trivial points	Let us not split hairs over the punctuation.
A fish out of water	Out of one's natural setting	At the gala he felt like a fish out of water.
To take the wind out of one's sails	To frustrate by anticipating	Her early reply took the wind out of his sails.
To strike while the iron is hot	To act at the opportune time	Submit the application now — strike while the iron is hot.
To turn over a new leaf	To begin again with better behaviour	After the warning he turned over a new leaf.
To draw the long bow	To exaggerate	He draws the long bow when he tells war stories.
To bury the hatchet	To make peace	The two old rivals finally buried the hatchet.
To show the white flag	To surrender	The garrison showed the white flag at dawn.
To read between the lines	To grasp the hidden meaning	You must read between the lines of the order.
To gild the lily	To over-embellish what is already fine	Adding music would only gild the lily.
To beard the lion in his den	To confront a powerful person on his own ground	He bearded the lion in his den at headquarters.
To burn the candle at both ends	To overwork day and night	You can't keep burning the candle at both ends.
To burn one's boats	To commit irrevocably	By resigning he burnt his boats.
To put the cart before the horse	To do things in the wrong order	Buying furniture before the lease is putting the cart before the horse.
A wolf in sheep's clothing	A dangerous person posing as harmless	The agent turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
To add fuel to the fire	To worsen a tense situation	His comment only added fuel to the fire.
To leave no stone unturned	To make every possible effort	The team left no stone unturned to win.
To take a leaf out of someone's book	To imitate someone's good practice	Take a leaf out of his book on punctuality.
To hit below the belt	To attack unfairly	That personal jibe was hitting below the belt.
To cry over spilt milk	To lament an irreversible loss	What is gone is gone; don't cry over spilt milk.

Mythological and historical idioms

These idioms come from Greek, Roman and British history. AFCAT loves them because they reward reading — the candidate who has met them in a passage will get them; the one who has not, will not. Learn the fifteen below as a non-negotiable.

Idiom	Meaning	Origin
Achilles' heel	A weak spot in an otherwise strong character	Greek myth — the only vulnerable part of the hero Achilles.
Sword of Damocles	A constant, looming threat	The courtier seated under a sword hung by a single hair.
Pyrrhic victory	A win achieved at unsustainable cost	King Pyrrhus of Epirus, whose battlefield wins crippled his army.
To cross the Rubicon	To take an irrevocable step	Caesar crossing the Rubicon river into Italy.
Hobson's choice	A choice in which there is really no choice	Thomas Hobson, a stable-keeper who made customers take the horse nearest the door.
Pandora's box	A source of unforeseen troubles	The jar that Pandora opened, releasing all evils.
Trojan horse	A deceptive ploy that lets the enemy in	The wooden horse used to capture Troy.
Midas touch	The ability to turn every venture into gold	King Midas, who turned all he touched to gold.
Herculean task	An extremely difficult assignment	The twelve labours of Hercules.
Lares and Penates	One's household and personal effects	Roman household gods.
Gordian knot	A seemingly intractable problem	The knot cut by Alexander rather than untied.
To meet one's Waterloo	To suffer a final, decisive defeat	Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815.
Aladdin's lamp	An instrument that grants every wish	The Arabian Nights tale.
Lion's den	A place of great danger	The Old Testament story of Daniel.
Augean stables	A long-neglected mess requiring radical clean-up	The fifth labour of Hercules.
Sword of Brennus	An unjust extra burden imposed by the powerful	The Gaulish chief Brennus throwing his sword onto the Roman scales.

Proverbs AFCAT has used

AFCAT does include a small number of proverbs alongside idioms. The list below covers the twenty-five most reliable, taken from the everyday English canon.

Proverb	Meaning
A stitch in time saves nine	Early action prevents bigger trouble later
A rolling stone gathers no moss	One who keeps changing never settles
Birds of a feather flock together	People of similar nature stay together
Empty vessels make the most noise	Ignorant people talk the most
Every cloud has a silver lining	There is good in every bad situation
Make hay while the sun shines	Use a favourable opportunity
The early bird catches the worm	Those who act early succeed
Too many cooks spoil the broth	Too many participants ruin a task
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush	What you have is safer than what you might get
Necessity is the mother of invention	Need drives creativity
Practice makes perfect	Repeated effort brings mastery
Where there is a will there is a way	Determination finds a path
Actions speak louder than words	What you do matters more than what you say
All that glitters is not gold	Appearance can be deceptive
Barking dogs seldom bite	The loudly threatening rarely act
Beggars cannot be choosers	Those in need must accept what is offered
Better late than never	Acting late is better than not acting
Don't count your chickens before they hatch	Do not assume success too early
Don't judge a book by its cover	Do not assess by appearance alone
Fortune favours the brave	Bold action attracts luck
Haste makes waste	Hurry leads to errors
Honesty is the best policy	Truth pays in the long run
Look before you leap	Think before acting
One swallow does not make a summer	A single instance does not prove a trend
People who live in glass houses should not throw stones	Do not criticise faults you share

Memory tips and a four-week revision plan

Idioms are memorised, not derived. The most reliable technique is spaced recall paired with a personal sentence — your own example anchors the meaning far better than the dictionary gloss alone.

Three memory techniques that work

Self-sentences. For every idiom, write one sentence drawn from your own life — your training, your home, your hobbies. Recall is twice as strong on personal sentences as on borrowed examples.
Story-clusters. Take five idioms from one theme and build a two-line story that uses all five. The narrative gives you retrieval handles you do not otherwise have.
Polarity tagging. Mark each idiom in your notebook with a plus, minus or neutral sign. When a sentence sets a tone in the exam, the tag lets you eliminate options of the opposite polarity in seconds.

Four-week revision plan

Week	Focus	Daily load
Week 1	Body-part and animal idioms (about 65 items)	10 idioms a day with self-sentences; review the previous day's list before adding new.
Week 2	Weather, money and colour idioms (about 58 items)	10 a day plus a 20-minute Sunday recap of weeks 1 and 2.
Week 3	Bookish and mythological idioms (about 45 items)	8 a day; tougher items deserve two sample sentences each.
Week 4	Proverbs and full-bank revision	25 proverbs over two days; then 50 random items daily as flash-recall.

Final-week drill: in the last seven days before the paper, do nothing new. Cycle the whole bank in random order, twenty idioms at a stretch, until your recall on each is under four seconds. Any item that takes longer needs a fresh sample sentence the same evening.

Worked AFCAT-style examples

Example 1

Choose the meaning of the idiom: ‘To bell the cat’.

To make a domestic pet wear a bell.
To do something risky for the common good.
To warn others of approaching danger by sound.
To remain silent in a tense situation.

Answer: B — to do something risky for the common good.
From the old fable of mice who debated who would put a bell on the cat. The idiom means taking on a risky task for the benefit of the group. Option A is the literal trap; option C captures the ‘warning’ fragment but loses the risk and the public benefit; option D inverts the idiom altogether.

Example 2

Choose the meaning of the idiom: ‘To throw up the sponge’.

To clean up vigorously.
To give up; admit defeat.
To celebrate noisily.
To start over with fresh energy.

Answer: B — to give up; admit defeat.
From boxing, where a corner threw a sponge into the ring to signal defeat. The literal cleaning interpretation is the planted trap. Options C and D set the wrong polarity — the idiom is about defeat, not celebration or fresh beginnings.

Example 3

Choose the meaning of the idiom: ‘To carry coals to Newcastle’.

To deliver fuel efficiently.
To carry out a difficult task.
To take something to a place where it is already abundant.
To travel a long distance for a small reward.

Answer: C — to take something to a place where it is already abundant.
Newcastle was historically the centre of British coal mining, so taking coal there is pointless. The idiom means doing something unnecessary. Option A is the literal trap; options B and D are unrelated to the idiom.

Example 4

Choose the meaning of the idiom: ‘A storm in a teacup’.

A small problem treated as a big crisis.
A sudden change in domestic plans.
A heated argument among friends.
An unexpected accident at home.

Answer: A — a small problem treated as a big crisis.
The teacup signals the trivial scale; the storm signals the disproportionate fuss. The idiom always pairs the two halves — a fuss out of proportion to the cause.

Example 5

Choose the meaning of the idiom in: The general had warned the cabinet that the missing files were the Achilles’ heel of the entire defence plan.

A heroic strength of the plan.
A weak spot in an otherwise strong arrangement.
An unexpected delay in implementation.
A symbol of patriotic resolve.

Answer: B — a weak spot in an otherwise strong arrangement.
Achilles was invulnerable except in his heel, where he was finally wounded. The idiom names a single weak point inside something otherwise strong. Option A inverts the meaning; options C and D pick on unrelated tones.

Example 6

Choose the meaning of the idiom: ‘Hobson’s choice’.

A difficult choice between two equally good options.
A choice in which there is really no choice at all.
A choice made under emotional pressure.
A traditional selection method used in commerce.

Answer: B — a choice in which there is really no choice at all.
From Thomas Hobson, a Cambridge stable-keeper who insisted customers take the horse nearest the door. The phrase names a take-it-or-leave-it situation. Option A is the partial-match trap — it captures ‘choice’ but loses the no-real-choice core.

Example 7

Choose the meaning of the idiom in: Once the witness began to speak, he let the cat out of the bag about the entire transaction.

Released a stray animal.
Made a confession that was already expected.
Revealed a secret that should have stayed hidden.
Began a quarrel with the prosecution.

Answer: C — revealed a secret that should have stayed hidden.
The idiom means to disclose something previously concealed, usually unintentionally or without permission. Option A is the literal trap; option B looks plausible but misses the core of the idiom, which is the revelation itself, not whether the revelation was expected.

Example 8

Choose the meaning of the idiom in: The committee’s long delay over the audit was felt to be a Pyrrhic victory for the dissenting members.

A spectacular win recognised across the country.
A victory that came too easily to be worth celebrating.
A success won at such a cost that it almost amounted to defeat.
A purely symbolic gesture without effect.

Answer: C — a success won at such a cost that it almost amounted to defeat.
King Pyrrhus of Epirus won battles against Rome but lost so many soldiers that he is supposed to have said one more such victory would ruin him. The idiom names a win whose price exceeds its value. Option B inverts the cost; option D drops the ‘win’ part.

Example 9

Choose the meaning of the idiom: ‘To rest on one’s laurels’.

To enjoy a brief holiday after hard work.
To become complacent on the strength of past achievement.
To prepare diligently for the next challenge.
To accept an honour with quiet pride.

Answer: B — to become complacent on the strength of past achievement.
Roman victors were crowned with laurel wreaths. To rest on them means to stop striving because of past wins. The idiom carries a critical edge that option D misses entirely and option A softens into innocence.

Example 10

Choose the meaning of the idiom: ‘To gild the lily’.

To decorate a flower for a ceremony.
To add unnecessary ornament to something already beautiful.
To praise something extravagantly.
To repair a damaged work of art.

Answer: B — to add unnecessary ornament to something already beautiful.
The lily is held to be perfect already; gilding it would only spoil the form. The idiom criticises over-embellishment. Option A is the literal trap; option C captures the ‘extra’ idea but loses the criticism.

Exam-day strategy

Memorise idioms in clusters — body parts, animals, money, weather, colours, bookish, mythological — so that you can group-revise twenty at a time and tag each by polarity.
Treat the literal reading of any idiom as the planted wrong option. AFCAT rarely tests an idiom whose figurative meaning coincides with its literal meaning, so the option that simply re-words the picture is almost always wrong.
Build a notebook with one self-written sample sentence per idiom drawn from your own life. Recall is roughly twice as strong on self-sentences as on borrowed ones.
Spend 30 to 40 per cent of your idiom revision time on the bookish and mythological bench. Everyone learns the everyday list; the differentiator is the literary one.
Aim for 30 to 40 seconds per item. If an idiom does not surface in 40 seconds, mark it, move on and return after the synonyms and antonyms rooms are done.
Use the polarity test on every sentence-embedded item. A positive sentence frame eliminates negative-polarity options; a negative frame eliminates positive ones. This single test resolves about a third of the harder items.
On the morning of the exam, scan the bookish and mythological tables — not the everyday list. The everyday list is already in long-term memory; the harder list rewards a final pass.

Practise Idioms and Phrases for AFCAT

AFCAT-pattern idiom drills covering everyday and bookish idioms plus literal-meaning and partial-match traps.

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Frequently asked questions

How many idiom questions does AFCAT have?

Two to four per paper across the last several solved papers, with an average close to three. Treat the section as a three-mark room when you plan your time budget.

Should I learn proverbs separately from idioms?

Yes. AFCAT does include a small number of proverbs alongside idioms, especially the everyday ones such as ‘A stitch in time saves nine’ and ‘Empty vessels make the most noise’. Keep a 25-proverb list and revise it once a week.

Are Indian-English idioms tested?

Rarely. AFCAT idioms lean on the British-English canon — the Wren-and-Martin tradition supplemented by Greek-Roman classical idioms. Mixed-language idioms or colloquial Indian-English phrases would not appear in the paper.

How do I handle an idiom I have never seen?

Use four moves in this order. First, reject the literal option. Second, use the polarity of the surrounding sentence to eliminate options of the opposite tone. Third, look for the option that paraphrases the most familiar word in the idiom. Fourth, if you are still unsure and the item is stand-alone, leave it — a guess at one-in-three after eliminations is barely positive in expectation given the negative marking.

Is the idiom section the same on AFCAT and EKT papers?

No. EKT is technical and does not test idioms. The bank described here applies only to the AFCAT general English paper. The same bank, however, transfers well to CDS English and SSC CGL English.

What is the single most common trap?

The literal-meaning option. In well over half of all idiom items, AFCAT plants an option that simply re-words the literal picture of the idiom. Train yourself to identify and eliminate this option in the first read.