I have always been fascinated with words. My current words that I like to use just because I like to are exacerbate, recalcitrant, obstreperous, and tenacious.
I grew up with a colorful language of "sayings" or idioms as they are called when you want to look them up, and I've always wanted to write them down, so I've been collecting, I had no idea I knew so many. A few of these I use all the time, the majority I don't. I've failed in passing them down.
UPDATE! I have been collecting these right along, and I'm surprised at how many I use over the course of a few months. I've decided not to sort them all by anyway except alphabetically. Some are idioms some are just funny ways of saying things.
According to Hoyle
All in the same boat
All the bells and whistles
And there you are
Another day another dollar
Baptized by fire
Barking up the wrong tree
Batten down the hatches
Bats in your belfry
No use beating a dead horse
Beat around the bush
Beat the tar out of
Better late than never
Between a rock and a hard place
Black as pitch
Were here born in a barn?
Born with a silver spoon in your mouth
Bought/sold the farm
Bite the bullet
I have a bone to pick with you
A bun in the oven
Can't get blood from a stone/turnip
Can't carry a tune in a bucket
Can't fight your way out of a wet paper sack
Cash on the barrel-head
Caught with your pants down
Chances are slim to none
Changed his tune
Clear as mud
Comes back to bite you
Comes back to haunt you
Costs and arm and a leg
Cotton on to
Couple bricks shy of a load
As the crow flies
Cute as a bug's ear
Dark as a stack of black cats
Dead as a doornail
Deaf as a post
Dodged a bullet
Doesn't amount to a hill of beans
A dollar waiting on a dime
Don't count your chickens before they hatch
Don't judge a book by it's cover
Down to brass tacks
Down to the wire
Don't a be a stick in the mud
Don't go home until the last dog is hung.
Don't shoot 'til you see the whites of their eyes
Dressed to the nines
Driving like Jehu
Drop in the bucket
(Eat) like it's going out of style
Fall for it hook, line and sinker
Fell down on the job
First whack out of the box
Full as a tick
Funnier than all get out
Get it coming and going
Get it while the getting's good
Get out of my hair
Getting the upper hand
Getting your just desserts
Getting too big for your britches
Goes against the grain
*Going over like a lead balloon
Going to town (at something)
Get my goat
Grab the bull by the horns
The grass is greener on the other side of the fence
See the handwriting on the wall
Hanging by a thread
Handed on a silver platter
Happy as a clam (at high tide, some say)
Haven't seen hide nor hair of them
A hitch in my get-along
Hold your horses
Getting a heads up
Grasping at straws
Hanging by a thread
*I'm out of here like a herd of turtles
Hitting below the belt
Hit it on the nose (right on target)
Hit the spot
If the shoe fits, wear it.
I'll see you in the funny papers
A fine kettle of fish!
Jumping through hoops
Kick the bucket
Kill two birds with one stone
Knee-high to a grasshopper
A leopard can't change it's spots
Lie through your teeth
Like a hot knife through butter
Living high on the hog
Like a bump/knot on a log
Like it's going out of style
Like pulling teeth
(Doing whatever) Like there's no tomorrow
Lying through their teeth
Living high on the hog
Living the life of Riley
Look down your nose at
Madder than a wet hen
Make hash of (something)
Make hay while the sun shines
Making a mountain out of a mole hill
For many a moon
Money burning a hole in your pocket
More than one way to skin a cat
More than you can shake a stick at
My way or the high way
Need that like a cat needs two tails
Needle in a haystack
Nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof
No holds barred
Not for all the tea in China
Not the only pebble on the beach
No time like the present
Not a leg to stand on
Nothing to sneeze at
Nothing to write home about
One brick shy of a load
One fell swoop
Open a can of worms
Out of the frying pan into the fire
Out of the mouth of babes
Passed with flying colors
Poor as a church mouse
Pot calling the kettle black
Pulling up by your bootstraps
Pushing the envelope
Pussy footing around
Put a flea in their ear
Pull out all the stops
Put a brick on his head
Put a lid on it
Put words in my mouth
Put your ducks in a row
Put your money where your mouth is
Put your foot in your mouth (Foot in mouth disease)
Quit beating around the bush
Right up my alley
Raining cats and dogs
Runs like a faucet (noses)
Sawing logs (sleeping heavily or snoring)
Saved by the bell
Scraping the bottom of the barrel
Scared the liver out of me
I haven't seen hide nor hair of (them)
Shoot yourself in the foot.
Sick a a dog
Six on on and half dozen of another
Slip through the cracks
Slow and steady wins the race
Slow as molasses in January
Speak now or forever hold your peace
Straight from the horse's mouth
Starting on a shoestring
Step up to the plate
Sticks in my craw
Stick to your guns
Stir the pot
Stopped dead in their tracks
Six ways from Sunday
Shot himself in the foot
Slower than molasses in January
Snug as a bug in a rug
Switch horses mid-stream
Take a gander at
Take a leaf out of (someone's) book
Takes to it like a duck to water
That's the way the cookie crumbles
There's egg on your face
The shoe's on the other foot
The tail wagging the dog
'Til the cows come home
Throw in the towel
Took the starch right out of me
Tough row to hoe
Turn over a new leaf
Two shakes of a (dead) lamb's tail
Up a creek without a paddle
Up one side and down another
Upset the apple cart
Water off a duck's back
A watched pot never boils
Were you born in a barn?
Whatever floats your boat
What's good for the goose is good for the gander
Work to death
The whole nine yards
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink
You make a better door than window
Other words
At loggerheads
Blowing up a storm
Bound and determined
A bum steer
Cabbage onto
Catty-corner (kitty-corner)
Cattywampus (catawampus kittywampus )
Chintzy
Chivvy
Cockeyed
Comeuppance
Cotton on to
Crystal clear
Cut and dried
Dead to the world
Dig in your heels
Don't piddle around
Fair to middling
Faster than all get out
Feel like I've been run over by a truck
Fit as a fiddle
First dibs
Flat broke
For crying out loud!
For Pete's sake
Get on the ball
Get up and go
Get your goat
Gist
Hidden up your sleeve
Hit like a ton of bricks
Madder than hops
My get up and go has got up and went
Gumption
Hankering after
Hitch in my git-along
Hoofing it
I reckon so
I have a mind to
Kerfluffle
My old stomping grounds
No spring chicken
Off kilter
Over yonder
Peter out
Plumb crazy (or plumb whatever)
Pulling my leg
Like pulling teeth
Put words in my mouth
Shaking like a leaf/Shaking in their boots
Silver lining
Sitting duck
Slept like a log
Smack dab in the middle of
Splitting hairs
Spot on
Stomping grounds
Stove up
Take a gander at
Tongue lashing
Two left feet
Under your belt (it's done)
Up to snuff
When pigs fly
Offered by others
Shanks mare
Went to Valhalla
These sort of sayings and word usage may be native only to certain parts of the country.
I use these and my dad is on the hunt to find more. I learned them at home.
*Absolute favorites.
