The American Heritage Dictionary Of Idioms, Second Edition

I bought this for my teen daughter who, as a bit of a literalist, sometimes struggled with idioms. I have found myself also enjoying this book. I like that it’s a normal sized book, making it a bit more portable than some other reference material. Both my daughter and me find ourselves reading this and getting “lost” in the idioms we don’t know. Of course, we could add plenty as language and idioms always are changing, but there are several “old school” idioms that can be appreciated, perhaps especially -though not exclusively - older populations looking for a trip through memory lane. This book is a great tool for increasing general knowledge and increasing speaking styles. It has also been helpful for catching pop cultures references perhaps otherwise missed, and has increased wit when speaking playfully with others.

This is a very comprehensive collection of American and English idioms. It is great for looking idioms up while you are watching TV, chatting with friends in a party (and play an ad hoc trivia on where a particular phrase came from.)The Kindle edition made it always accessible where you are - via a Kindle or smartphone. No additional weight to carry.The Search function in the eBook makes it easy to look up a phase you want to learn about, not kust its meaning, but its origin as well.What is the "fell" in "one fell swoop"? What is the origin of this idiom? The answers are in the book.BUT, ... due to its huge collection, this is not a book that you want to pick up and browse in your spare time. There are other books for that purpose. It's a dictionary :-)

I have found much informative History of origins of sayings and words

I have found this book to be very helpful for verifying usage of words and idioms according to their dates of origin, for writing historical fiction.

I purchased this tool for my 12 year old daughter to use. She has trouble reading between the lines and often misses the intention in certain turns of phrase as she's reading. This is a perfect solution for her and it gives clear concise information to readers of all ages. We had fun just looking up sayings to see what it said.

It's a pretty interesting book. A lot of sayings in it I never heard before, and I'm 76 years old. Still interesting.

I've looked through a few books of idioms, and I don't think it gets better than this.The list is fairly comprehensive. Sure, there could be more explanation, perhaps, but then that would double or triple or even quadruple the length of the book, which is truly unrealistic.A solid reference book!

but found some phrases I was looking for. I was raised by a proofreader and lover of books; also possessor of many pet peeves regarding misuse of the English language. Along the way, I've picked up the pet peeves of others. Glad to have proof that I'm not confused!