Idioms in Informal Converstion

Mixed Metaphors:

It’s time to step up to the plate and lay your cards on the table.


Not uncommon - there are Web Sites devoted to them, but I could not find many good examples.

Also interesting are oxymorons:

Turkey Ham

Plastic Glasses

Old Boy

'Definitely Maybe' is the debut album by the English rock band Oasis

'A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse' by 'The Faces'

<<I would not recommend using too many idioms in your speech unless you are experienced, and certainly don't learn them from a list. Idioms must be learnt in context to get a feel for them. Misuse of idioms or overuse can have quite a high cringe factor. By all means, use the common ones and learn passively the rarer ones. But don't go over the top and turn into an idiom machine that pumps them out like mad. It sounds bad enough when native speakers use too many (to each his own though, of course).>>

I couldn't agree more. Some non-native speakers learn them from lists or something like that and then literally overuse them. Too many uncommon idioms will make your speech sound weird, old-fashioned, or make you sound like a priest, LOL.

Are there idioms and slang died out?

Sorry! Uhm, are there idioms and slangs that died out?

Slang has no "s" at the end.

I think that most of the "examples" in this thread are not idioms at all. For instance, "clear as mud" is a quite straightforward comparison. One test to see whether something is an idiom is to substitute synonyms and see if it still makes sense. "As transparent as wet dirt" isn't a common expression, but I don't think many people would have trouble understanding what it means.

As for using idioms, I think that the main purpose of foreign speakers learning idioms should be simply to understand native speakers, rather than trying to use them themselves. If idioms start to come naturally, fine, but for the most part you shouldn't be making a specific effort to use idioms.