10 Spooky Idioms You Should Know This Halloween

As Halloween approaches, what better way to get into the spirit than by learning some new spooky vocabulary?

To help you survive the witching hour – or your English exams - we’ve compiled a list of 10 of the most common spooky phrases in English!

1) Skeletons in the Closet

Meaning: Everyone has their secrets, but some are more ominous than others. When someone has skeletons in the closet, it means that they are hiding something that would probably damage their reputation – like discovering an actual skeleton.

While the phrase’s origins are uncertain, some suggest that the phrase stems from the UK practice of ‘body snatching’. Before 1832, it was difficult to legally use cadavers for medical research, so doctors would hide the skeletons they had ‘snatched’ for teaching purposes in cupboards.

Example: ‘He’s got some skeletons in the closet.’

2) Ghost Town

Meaning: If you’ve ever tried to have fun in your small hometown, you might relate to this phrase. Literally, it refers to a deserted town or city, where all the inhabitants have left. However, it’s often used to describe somewhere that feels very quiet or empty.

Example: ‘It’s like a ghost town here!’

3) Come Back to Haunt You

Meaning: It’s not just ghosts that can haunt us. When something comes back to haunt you, it means that a past decision or action causes problems for you in the future.

Skipping your daily English practice? It might come back to haunt you.

Example: ‘That will come back to haunt her.’

4) Blind as a Bat

Meaning: Calling someone blind as a bat is a way of saying that their eyesight is very poor or that they fail to notice obvious things.

But why bats? Centuries ago, people believed bats were blind because of their erratic flying patterns. While some species have poor eyesight, bats can in fact see, and their unusual flight is instead an example of echolocation – using echoes to help them navigate the dark.

Example: ‘I’m as blind as a bat without my glasses.’

5) Dig Your Own Grave

Meaning: The meaning of this phrase is straightforward enough: if you keep doing foolish things, you’re digging your own grave. In other words, you’re contributing to your own downfall.

The idiom is believed to originate from the old Bible proverb, ‘Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein’.

Example: ‘You should stop talking; you’re digging your own grave.’

6) Play Devil's Advocate

Meaning: A devil’s advocate is, literally, a person who supports the devil. As an idiom, though, it describes a person who argues against a popular opinion, not because they believe it, but to challenge the argument or create debate.

Unsurprisingly, the idiom began in the church. From the 1500s, an ‘advocatus diaboli’ or devil’s advocate would be appointed to argue against someone being considered for sainthood. The idea was that the devil’s advocate would try and find flaws in their character or stories by arguing the opposite.

Example: ‘He’s really annoying because he always plays devil’s advocate.’

7) In Cold Blood

Meaning: This chilling phrase refers to a violent act carried out intentionally in a calculated, emotionless way. If someone is killed in cold blood, it means the murder was planned rather than committed in the heat of the moment.

While we don’t know exactly where this unsettling phrase began, some believe it to originate in 16th-century medicinal beliefs. During this period, many doctors thought that emotions and internal bodily fluids were closely linked. For example, illness and disease were commonly connected to an imbalance of the ‘four humours’, or the four types of fluids: black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm.

Example: ‘He was murdered in cold blood.’

8) Someone/Something Won't Bite

Meaning: Try not to take this phrase too literally. When someone says a person ‘won’t bite’, they simply mean that there is no need to fear them, not that there was ever a real chance of being bitten by your neighbour.

Example: ‘Just ask – she won’t bite.’

9) Night Owl

Meaning: There are early birds, and there are night owls – and both are always at odds about who has the better sleep patterns. While an early bird prefers to wake up early and use the morning for productivity, a night out wakes up later and favours the peace of nighttime.

The term ‘night owl’ was originally a synonym for ‘owl’, until the early 1600s. Some attribute the original metaphorical meaning to Shakespeare, who uses the term in his ‘Rape of Lucrece’ in 1594.

Example: ‘I’m a night owl. I prefer to work later and wake up at 10am.’

10) Scaredy Cat

Meaning: If you’re a scaredy cat, then you’d probably never survive a horror movie or a haunted house. This phrase can often be heard hurled across the playground between children, referring to somebody who is easily afraid or timid.

The phrase likely stems from the fact that cats are easily startled, but it was made popular by a book called The Waltz by Dorothy Parker.

Example: ‘Don’t be such a scaredy cat.’

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