List of animal idioms beginning with S and meanings

How does the list works?

There are 3 parts to each idioms the first part is what the idiom is, then an explanation of what it means and the last part is an example of how to use it in a sentence.

How do I use the list of animal idioms A to Z?

To use the list of idioms click on each letter of the alphabet to get the list of the animal idioms for that letter.

[ A ] [ B ] [ C ] [ D ] [ E ] [ F ] [ G ] [ H ] [ I ] [ J ] [ K ] [ L ] [ M ] [ N ] [ O ] [ P ] [ Q ] [ R ] [ S ] [ T ] [ U ] [ V ] [ W ] [ X ] [ Y ] [ Z ]

Animal idioms beginning with S

a sacred cow

- a person or thing that is never criticized or changed even if it should be (from a cow which is sacred in India)

The school lunch program is a sacred cow which they do not want to change.

a scaredy-cat

- someone who is easily frightened (usually used by children)

The children called their friend a scaredy-cat because she would not enter the empty house.

see a man about a dog

- to leave for some unmentioned purpose (often to go to the washroom)

I left our table in the restaurant to go and see a man about a dog.

separate the sheep from the goats

- to divide people into two groups

We had to separate the sheep from the goats when we began to make selections for the school choir.

serve as a guinea pig

- to allow some kind of test to be performed on someone

I was not happy that I had to serve as a guinea pig for the new training material.

a shaggy dog story

- a long and often pointless story that is told as a joke and often ends in a very silly or unexpected way

My friend told me a shaggy dog story about how he lost his bicycle.

smell a rat

- to be suspicious of someone or something, to feel that something is wrong

I smell a rat. There is something wrong with the free credit card offer.

squirrel away (something) or squirrel (something) away

- to hide or store something

My niece likes to squirrel away as much money as possible from her part-time job.

straight from the horse's mouth

- directly from the person who said something, directly from a dependable source

I heard it straight from the horse's mouth that our supervisor will be leaving the company next week.

Lessons that are related to the exercise

To view any of the lessons below click on link.

Idioms human body English lesson

A to Z Idioms - list English phrases

Small List of idioms A - Z English phrases

Dictionary and how to use dictionaries

Click on the following link for the Online English dictionary - English lesson