With winter swiftly approaching, many people are already starting to think about their Christmas plans. Others are starting to complain about the dark mornings and shorter days and are battening down the hatches, ready to hibernate!
How do you feel about the winter season? Are you ready to face the cold? Although you may not be ready for the cold weather, your English can certainly continue to improve over the coming months. As you probably already know, Brits love to talk about the weather, and even more so during the winter months!
There are lots of idioms in English that use winter words but not all of them are used to talk about winter, which can really confuse students! I have put together a collection of winter idioms just for you but there are many more that you need to learn if you want to become fluent in English.
What are idioms?
An idiom is an expression used to mean something other than the literal meaning of the words. There are thousands of idioms, occurring frequently in all languages and it is estimated that there are at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions in the English language. For example, let’s look at the idiom highlighted above:
Batten down the hatches – This means to prepare for a difficult period by protecting yourself in every possible way. When there is a bad storm, ships batten down the hatches, which means the sailors close the doors to the outside to protect against the bad weather. Although this idiom derived from life at sea, we still use it today in difficult situations.
Winter words
There are many idioms in English which use the words snow and ice. Let’s look at some of them.
Pure as the driven snow
This idiom refers to being innocent but is frequently used ironically, for example:
I never thought Madonna was as pure as the driven snow, but I can’t believe she did that on stage!
Driven snow is snow that has blown into drifts and is very clean because it has not yet been trodden on. Shakespeare used snow as a symbol for purity in several of his plays.
To break the ice
When you break the ice, you are creating a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere, usually to overcome social awkwardness, often experienced when meeting someone for the first time.
I asked her about her job to break the ice.
The first recorded use of this idiom goes back to the 17th century when used within Samuel Butler’s satirical poem, ‘Hudibras’ and it was utilised within the context of breaking down social formality and stiffness.
Snowed under
This idiom refers to the state of being overwhelmed, usually because of responsibilities that you have. For instance, you could use it when speaking about your job:
I’m completely snowed under at work and I have so many projects to finish by the end of this week!
In this context, you have so much work to do that you cannot go anywhere or do any other tasks. It’s a similar situation to a heavy snow fall, which results in too much snow on the streets and roads. The snow is heavy and deep and the process of clearing the snow away is hard work!
To be on thin ice
The expression is used to describe a situation of possible danger or risk, where the ‘ice’ could break at any time and the person walking on the ice could fall in and get hurt. It usually refers to a situation in which you are already in trouble and can’t afford another mistake:
If you upset her again today, you’ll really be on thin ice.
As you can see, there are many idioms in English which contain winter words. Using these expressions in conversation will help to add some sparkle to your English!
Don’t get cold feet, give it a go!
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