It's A Dog's Life - Idiomatically Speaking Quiz

Answer: raining

This expression means it's raining very heavily. It is believed to come from Norse mythology, in which the dog is associated with wind and the cat with storms.

Answer: hair

Especially used by Australians the day after being out drinking and feeling hung-over. The hair of the dog that bit you intimates that if you have some more of your favourite poison (i.e., whatever you were drinking the night before) your hangover will disappear.

In the past people believed that if you were bitten by a crazy dog, the injury could be made better by putting hairs from the dog's tail on it!

Answer: pony

A particularly American expression, this means to put on a good performance to impress someone. For example you may need to put on a dog and pony show for your boss to impress him (or her) or organise an event in order to get people's support or to persuade them to buy something.

Answer: days

This expression refers to the very hot days in July and August (in the northern hemisphere). This is the time that the Dog Star, Sirius, rises in conjunction with the sun.

Answer: bark

In Britain and Australia particularly this expression means that there is no reason for doing something yourself when there is someone else who will do it for you, for example, just leave the beer glasses at the table, the bar staff will collect them. After all, why keep a dog and bark yourself?

Answer: two

To be extremely happy is to be like a dog with two tails!

Answer: dinner

Particularly Australian, to be done like a dog's dinner is to be beaten in a sporting or gaming pursuit badly!

Answer: tail

If you describe a situation as the tail wagging the dog, you mean that the least important part of a situation has too much influence over the most important part.

Answer: manger

This expression relates to someone who keeps something that they do not really want in order to prevent anyone else from having it, like being a dog in the manger.

Answer: life

This is something that you say which means that although someone is old, they still have enough energy to do things, for example, Grandad still likes swimming and even though he may be 90 years old, there's life in the old dog yet! The phrase is used especially when the elderly person's actions are surprising. (With thanks to the Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms).