“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
Oscar Wilde, an Irish poet and playwright
There are 6 basic emotions – happiness, sadness, fear, disgust, anger and surprise. Whenever you feel them, you sure can say that you are happy, sad, afraid, disgusted, angry or surprised. Or you can use some of the idioms we’re going to teach you today. Study the vocabulary below and do the exercises to practice.
Happiness
Idiom | Meaning | Example |
to be in high spirits | to be in a good mood | He is in high spirits since his girlfriend agreed to move in with him. |
to be beside oneself with joy | to be in a state of great excitement | I was beside myself with joy when I found out about the admission. |
to be happy as a lark | to be very happy | I’m as happy as a lark because my kids are finally coming home after 2 years away. |
to be happy as a pig in mud | to be very happy | Kathy was as a pig in mud all day long – she’d been waiting for a day in Disneyland for a very long time. |
to be bursting with joy | to be so filled up with happiness as to be unable to contain it | She was bursting with joy when she’d found out she was pregnant. |
to have a ball | to have a great time | So how was the party last night? – It was great – we had a ball! |
to be in one’s element | be in a situation or environment that one particularly likes and in which one can perform well | He was always in his element when working around the house. |
to be with bells on | eagerly, enthusiastically | We are waiting for you with bells on. |
to be blissed out | to be perfectly happy and relaxed | Josh is just blissed out, always smiling. |
to be cock-a-hoop (old-fashioned) | to be extremely and obviously pleased, especially about an achievement | The team is cock-a-hoop at winning its first game of the season |
More idioms about happiness are here.
Sadness
Idiom | Meaning | Example |
to be out of sorts | to be in an unhappy mood | Peter overslept this morning and has been out of sorts all day. |
to be low-spirited | to be sad | I’m so low-spirited because I couldn’t land the job. |
to be down in the dumps | to be unhappy, depressed | He’s been down in the dumps since his boss criticized his report last week. |
to be grief-stricken | to be sorrowful | Her pet died and she’s grief-stricken. Let’s give her some time. |
to have the blues | to be sad, melancholy | I have the blues now but I’ll be OK. Just give me a day or two. |
to be blue | to have the blues | She’s been blue since the day he left her. |
to be heavy-hearted | to melancholy, depressed | I can’t watch such movies – they make me heavy-hearted. |
to be broken-hearted | overwhelmed by grief or disappointment | She was broken-hearted when her boyfriend made those rude remarks. |
to be a sad sight | to be very sad | Why is he such a sad sight? – I hear he’s lost a lot of money in the market. |
to be cast down | to feel depressed | She was greatly cast down by abusive criticism of her novels. |
Fear
Idiom | Meaning | Example |
to be in a cold sweat | to be nervous, terrified | When I looked over the cliff, I broke out in a cold sweat. |
to be terror-stricken | to feel extreme fear | The girl was glued to the spot (= the girl couldn’t move), terror-stricken. |
to be horror-stricken | to be briefly paralysed with horror or shock | I was horror-stricken when I witnessed the crime. |
to be beside oneself | to be very shocked | Anyone would be beside themselves if they saw what she did. |
to give someone heebie-jeebies | to frighten someone | Dark alleys give me heebie-jeebies. |
to be in a fluster | to be in an agitated, confused state | The main thing is not to get all in a fluster. We must remain clam. |
to be in a (blue) funk | to be extremely nervous, fearful (this idioms can also mean to be sad) | I’ve been in a funk since I started getting the threat letters. |
to be in a state | to be agitated, anxious | I’m in a state because the test is tomorrow and my whole life depends on it! – Don’t be so dramatic. |
to be in a tizzy | to be in a nervous, confused, agitated state | He’s always in a tizzy before board meetings, so it’s going to be a long couple of days. |
to be panic-stricken | to be affected with panic | The panic-stricken victims rushed out of their blazing homes. |
More idioms about fear are here.
Practice
Click the link here and match the sentence parts.
Click the link here and choose the right words to complete the sentences.
Did you like the post? Be sure to subscribe to our blog for more content like this. In the next article on the topic, we’ll cover idioms related to the other 3 basic emotions – disgust, surprise and anger.