“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.

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