Advanced English Idioms: Health

 

Here are the idiomatic expressions that might help you speak about feeling well or unwell and getting better after a disease. There are also informal idioms to say someone is mad and to mean 'die'.

 

 

 

  Idioms to say you are  well

AS FIT AS A FIDDLE / AS FIT AS A FLEA (BrE)
perfectly well

Ex. My grandmother is 89, but she is as fit as a fiddle.

Russian equivalent: здоров как бык. Дословный перевод:  "здоров как скрипка", "здоров как блоха".

AS RIGHT AS RAIN
perfectly well

Ex. She'll be as right as rain in a couple of days.

Russian equivalent: в полном порядке, в полном здравии. Дословный перевод: "в порядке как дождь".

IN THE PINK

'in very good health' or 'in very good condition both physically and emotionally'

Ex. Ruth looks very well - she's certainly in the pink.

Russian equivalent: здоров как бык, цветет и пахнет.

Idioms to say you are unwell

OFF-COLOUR

slightly ill

Ex. I'm feeling a bit off-colour today.

Russian equivalent: не в форме, недомогающий

UNDER THE WEATHER

ill

Ex.  I'm feeling a bit under the weather - I think I've caught a cold..

Russian equivalent: больной, неважно себя чувствующий.

 LIKE DEATH WARMED UP (UK) /  LIKE DEATH WARMED OVER (US)

extremely ill

Ex. He shouldn't be working when he's so ill - he looks like death warmed up!

Russian equivalent: краше в гроб кладут. 

GREEN AROUND THE GILLS 

(looking) ill and pale

Ex. Matt was out drinking last night and he is a bit green around the gills this morning.

 BE OFF ONE'S FOOD

not want to eat, usually because you are ill

Ex. The god is off it's food this week.

Russian equivalent: нет аппетита.

Idioms to say you are getting better

ON THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

getting better

Ex. The doctor says she's on the road to recovery.

Russian equivalent: идти на поправку

ON THE MEND

getting better after an illnes or a difficult period

Ex. He's had flue, but he's on the mend.

Russian equivalent: идти на поправку.

  Informal idioms to say someone is mad

NOT ALL THERE
slightly stupid or strange

Ex.  In American teen slang, Vini is a ‘space’— a dreamer, someone not all there.

OFF ONE'S TROLLEY
 mad, insane

Ex. ‘She went off her trolley in Margate after drinking that stuff,’ Otley went on, ‘singing, dancing, roller-skating — turning cartwheels on top of the cliffs.

NOT RIGHT IN THE HEAD
 not completely sane

Ex. 'You have just proved you're not right in the head'.

Russian equivalent:  не в своем уме.

A BASKET CASE
 (of a person or thing) regarded as useless or unable to cope

Ex. 'Ask me to read in front of people now, and I become a basket case'.

Russian equivalent:  ненормальный, псих.

 

OFF ONE'S ROCKER
mad 

Ex.When I got back home, my friends thought I was off my rocker.

AS NUTTY AS A FRUITCAKE
 completely mad

Ex. 'He was a man who was a wise as a venerable oak to some and as nutty as a fruitcake to others'.

Russian equivalent:  

ONE SANDWICH SHORT OF A PICNIC
stupid, lacking intelligence

Ex. I wouldn't trust her. She is one sandwich short of picnic

GET A SCREW LOOSE
silly, eccentric

Ex. He wears a heavy jacket in the middle of summer. He's got a screw loose.

Russian equivalents: не в себе; не в своем уме; не все дома; "с приветом", чокнутый, придурковатый, псих, ненормальный, шарики за ролики; съехавший с катушек; спятить.

  Informal idioms that mean 'die'

POP ONE'S CLOGS
die

Ex.  I think I'll leave all my money to charity when I pop my clogs.

BITE THE DUST
be killed

Ex. 'I'm not going to talk baby talk to Annie and teach her the Disney world of violence with no consequences, where the bad guy always bites the dust and the good guy lives happily ever after.'

GIVE UP THE GHOST
die

Ex.  'The tulips almost got to flowering but then seemed to give up the ghost, go pale and slowly fall over.'

FALL OFF ONE'S PERCH 
die (BrE, old-fashioned)

Ex.  By the time I fall off my perch Britain may well be a republic.

KICK THE BUCKET

die

Ex. 'But in spite of the fact, when he kicks the bucket ..., it is going to be one of the biggest funerals in the Bahamas.'

Sources:
1. F. O'Dell, M. McCarthy. English Idioms in Use.
2. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/
3. http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/.
4. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/
5. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/