Continuing Glossophilia’s 10-part series on bodily expressions.
We’ve gathered all the phrases and expressions we can possibly think of that make use of bodily parts in all their glory — and divided them into ten broad categories* descending from head to toe (and then some …). We’ve left out one- and two-word euphemistic adjectives and tried to avoid expressions that refer too literally to our actual limbs, organs or orifices; what follows are phrases that tend towards the metaphorical and poetic, even though some can also be taken more literally.
Here we have phrases using eyes and ears — those poetic gateways to the sights and sounds of our daily lives. And coming up next: faces, noses & mouths; teeth, cheeks & chins …
Eye(s):
1. to have a bird’s eye view
2. Raise your eyebrows
3. Keep an eye on / keep an eye out for
4. Make sheep’s eyes at
5. In the eyes of the law
6. Didn’t bat an eye(lid)
7. to the naked eye
8. Can’t/can hardly believe my eyes
9. To eye someone up
10. In the blink of an eye
11. Pull the wool over my eyes
12. Easy on the eyes
13. With an eye to
14. In the twinkle of an eye
15. Feast your eyes on something
16. A feast for the eyes
17. The apple of my eye
18. He has his eye on something/someone
19. To have a roving eye
20. Has caught the eye of
21. To catch someone’s eye
22. Turn a blind eye
23. In my mind’s eye
24. See eye to eye
25. I would give my eyeteeth for something
26. An eye for an eye
27. Eyes bigger than my stomach
28. A sight for sore eyes
29. Keep my eyes peeled
30. To be up to your eyeballs in something
31. He has an eye for something
32. He only has eyes for her
33. I can do it with my eyes closed
34. All eyes are on him
35. To (first) set/clap one’s eyes on
36. As far as the eye can see
37. To be in the public eye
38. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
39. Before my very eyes
40. Can’t take my eyes off someone/something
41. Cast your eye over something
42. To have stars in your eyes
43. Out of the corner of my eye
44. More than meets the eye
45. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house
46. With one’s eyes (wide) open
Ear(s):
1. To be all ears
2. Play it by ear
3. To prick up your ears
4. To box someone’s ears
5. Don’t believe my ears
6. Out on your ear
7. Up to my ears in something
8. In one ear and out the other
9. To have an ear for something
10. Keep your ears to the ground
11. Your ears must be burning
12. To bend someone’s ear
13. It’s coming out of my ears
14. It fell on deaf ears
15. He’s hardly dry behind the ears
16. With a flea in her ear
17. Can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear
18. My ears are flapping
19. To put a word in someone’s ear
20. Grinning from ear to ear
21. Nothing between his ears
22. That’s music to my ears
23. He talked her ear off
24. Throw him out on his ear
*****
* Categories:
I: Hair, heads & brains
II: Eyes & ears
III: Faces, noses & mouths, teeth, cheeks & chins
IV: Necks, throats & shoulders
V: Chests, breasts & hearts
VI: Arms & hands, fingers & thumbs
VII: Bellies & bottoms, hips, loins & backs
VIII: Legs, feet, toes & heels
IX: Blood, sweat & tears, skin & bones, nerves, muscles
X: Bodies & skeletons