A
(An) old hand
Meaning: An experienced person
Sentence:
A bed of roses
Meaning: Comfortable
Sentence: Life is not a bed of roses for lower class people in Pakistan.
A bed of thorns
Meaning: A difficult thing
Sentence: Life is a bed of thorns for a policeman.
A beast of burden
Meaning: An animal used for carrying heavy loads
Sentence: The donkey is a beast of burden.
A big gun/shot
Meaning: A big and important person
Sentence: He is a big gun in the world of business.
A bird of passage
Meaning: A migratory bird
Sentence: Do not trust him, he is a migratory bird.
A bird's eye-view
Meaning: If you have a bird's eye view of something, you can see it perfectly clearly.
Sentence: You need a bird’s eye view of the World War 2 events to pass the test.
A Black sheep:
Meaning: Undesirable member of a group.
Sentence: Asad is the black sheep in his family and has not made a success of his life.
A Blessing in disguise:
Meaning: Something good that isn't recognised as such at first.
Sentence: The loss of wealth sometimes is a blessing in disguise.
A blind alley
Meaning: A narrow street closed at one end
Sentence: The thief was easily caught when he ran into a blind alley.
A blue eyed boy
Meaning: A favorite
Sentence: Mr. Saleem is a blue eyed boy of his boss.
A blue stocking
Meaning: A woman having literary taste
Sentence: She is not well educated but she is a blue stocking.
A bolt from the blue:
Meaning: Unexpected bad news.
Sentence: “Arrestment, sudden really as a bolt out of the blue, has hit strange victims”.
A bone of contention
Meaning: The subject or reason for a fight or dispute
Sentence: The size of the project was a bone of contention between the city and the developer.
A broken reed
Meaning: Someone untrustworthy, not to be relied upon
Sentence: Do not tell your secrets to him because he is a broken reed.
A brown study
Meaning: Thinking deeply and not noticing what is happening around one
Sentence: I startled him from his brown study.
A bull in a China shop
Meaning: A wreckless or clumsy destroyer
Sentence: My son behaved like a bull in a China shop and destroyed everything in the library.
A cold-blooded murder
Meaning: A cruel murder
Sentence: The killing of Liaquat Ali Khan was a cold blooded murder.
A cry in the wilderness
Meaning: An impossible thing
Sentence: The cry of peace in a disputed area is a cry in the wilderness.
A calculated risk
Meaning: An action that may fail but has a good chance succeed.
Sentence: The company took a calculated risk when they launched the new computer.
A Close Shave
Meaning: A narrow escape.
Sentence: Wow, that was a close shave. I thought the guard would spot us.
A cog in the machine
Meaning: One part of a large system or organization.
Sentence: He was just a small cog in the large wheel of organised crime.
At cross purposes
Meaning: Two persons having opposite views, that they do not understand each other
Sentence: He is at cross purposes with his father on the issue of his marriage.
A casting vote
Meaning: Decisive vote
Sentence: The speaker used his casting vote in the favour of proposition.
A cat and dog life