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 legs, feet, toes and heels. Up next: idioms using blood, sweat and tears, skin and bone, nerves and sinews.

Leg:

1. Break a leg

2. To shake a leg

3. To pull one’s leg

4. To give a leg up

5. To have a leg up on someone

5. Doesn’t have a leg to stand on

6. To talk the hind legs off a donkey

7. To stretch my legs

8. Get one’s sea legs

9. On her last legs

10. It costs an arm and a leg

11. With his tail between his legs

12. (of an idea) to have legs

Knee:

1. Knee-high to a grasshopper

2. To beg on bended knee

3. Weak at the knees

4. They’re the bee’s knees

5. To bring someone to their knees

6. To be knee-deep in something

Feet:

1. Cold feet

2. Itchy feet

3. Keep your feet on the ground

4. Put my best foot forward

5. To put your foot in it / put your foot in your mouth

6. To have my foot in the door

7. Pull the rug (out) from under one’s feet

8. Start/get off on the right/wrong foot

9. To drag your feet

10. To put your feet up

11. To put your foot down

12. To have one’s feet in both camps

13. One foot in the grave

14. Two left feet

15. To have feet of clay

16. To have the world at one’s feet

17. To fall/land on one’s feet

18. To think on one’s feet

19. My foot

20. Put one foot in front of another

21. Put your foot to the floor

22. Shoot oneself in the foot

23. Set foot in/somewhere

24. Stand on one’s own two feet

25. The shoe is on the other foot

26. Never put a foot wrong

27. To find one’s feet

28. To be fleet of foot

29. To get one’s feet wet

30. My feet barely touched the ground

31. To wait on someone hand and foot

Toe:

1. To toe the line

2. To keep on one’s toes

3. To step/stand on someone’s toes

4. To dip one’s toe(s) into something / to dip one’s toe in the water

5. From top to toe

Heel:

1. Down at heel

2. Hot on the heels of

3. Under the heel of

4. To bring to heel

5. To cool one’s heels

6. To dig one’s heels in

7. It’s his Achilles heel

8. To kick up one’s heels

9. To take to one’s heels

10. To turn on one’s heel

11. To show one’s heels / to show a clean pair of heels

12. (To fall) head over heels

*****
* 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