The Dictionary of Clichés: A Word Lover's Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes

by Christine Ammer

The largest, most comprehensive, and most entertaining reference of its kind, The Dictionary of Clichés features more than four thousand unique clichés and common expressions. Author Christine Ammer explores the phrases and terms that enliven our language and uncovers expressions that have long been considered dead. With each entry, she includes a thorough definition, origin of the term, and an insightful example.

Some of the clichés brought into the limelight

• Blood is thicker than water
• Monkey see, monkey do
• Brass tacks
• Burn the midnight oil
• Change of heart
• Moral fiber
• By the book

Whether clichés get under your skin or make you happy as a clam, The Dictionary of Clichés goes the extra mile to provide an essential resource for students, teachers, writers, and anyone with a keen interest in language. And that’s food for thought.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Nonfiction, Language, Historical, Dictionaries, Linguistics

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Christine Ammer is the author of more than three dozen reference books, on subjects ranging from classical music to women's health. Her books on words and phrases include Facts on File Dictionary of Clichés; Seeing Red or Tickled Pink; Fighting Words from War, Rebellion, and Other Combative Capers; Southpaws and Sunday Punches; Cool Cats and Top Dogs; and Fruitcakes and Couch Potatoes. She lives in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov]

A cliché is a phrase that is overused by definition. Yet, one thing about clichés: sprinkle a few and you and the reader seem to have a mutual shortcut to understanding, add a few more and most readers write you off as an unimaginative hack.

The most critical thing about the cliché is that the reader needs to understand it. A cliché from one era may not convey the same thing to a reader of another. Thus a book that gives you both the meaning and the origin is of some use. I keep this one handy. It is thick and rarely do I need anything in addition to it. It may not have everything that I need, but it is a quick and satisfying solution to any immediate question.

PS: You can see by my dates that I put this on my GR list last year to remind myself to give it some exercise before writing a review.

[Jbussen]

I love me my bathroom readers. I just reviewed The dictionary of clichés by James Rogers. Same type of book but it wasn't very good. This one is much better. It has actual clichés that are not self explanatory. It's a much better read, better editing, better format, better everything. I am happy I decided to borrow 2 of these and read the better one.

[James]

In my quest to shoehorn as many idiomatic expressions in my life as possible, I’ve decided to read Christine Ammer’s Dictionary of Cliches. One can bet one’s bottom dollar that this book is the real McCoy, the simon pure, all wool and a yard wide. I didn’t know beans about some sayings that were as old as the hills but Ammer really shed some light on the matter. She can speak volumes about the origins and histories of different sayings, soups to nuts, the whole nine yards, kit and caboodle, straight from the horse’s mouth. Now I know the etymology and usage of these idiomatic expressions like the back of my hand and I can go hog wild on abusing English til the cows come home.

[Sara Goldenberg]

I think with this volume, I have read all of her books. Truthfully, I enjoyed reading about cliches in small amounts, not book after book of them.

[Ruth Bogan]

Believe it or not, another potential source for etegami greetings. Plays on words are popular with etegamists. I purchased three books for my reference collection--this one, a book of proverbs and a book of idioms. Besides being fun to look through, it gives me a chance to compare how they are put together. I already have a gripe with this one--The Dictionary of Cliches--because its indexing leaves something to be desired. The words and phrases are alphabetically arranged by the first significant word. Every once in a while, the author throws in a cross reference, but not many. The back of the book index is also arranged alphabetically by the first significant word, in effect just a list of the entries in the order they appear in the book. Not helpful. What would have been helpful is a keyword index. For example the phrase 'eat crow' appears in the 'E' section of the book and in the index, but there's no cross reference or index entry for 'crow.' The entries have historical notes, which helps.

[Ralph]

Good reference for finding the origin and uses of common cliches. Disappointed that it does not include anything on "...out of hand." I think that this qualifies as a cliche but perhaps I am mistaken as I have yet to see it included in any collection of cliches.

[Jen]

Because I'm curious. :)

[Elizabeth]

I read a few pages of this at a time in order to fall asleep. It’s been over a year. No way to rate it because of my use for it. I did tire of the descriptor “undoubtedly American” and I found some explanations dubious, but who am I? I am not an expert reference writer.

[Robin Peeters]

Was a fun book

[Lori]

A fun conversation starter.

[B]

A fun book for word lovers!

[Sara Goldenberg]

It was more of a list than anything else, but I did learn something!

[ci]

If you are a lover of words, you will find this book very interesting. I enjoyed learning where the terms originated.

[Carrie Billig]

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