About this pack
Beating around the bush, burning the midnight oil, biting off more than you can chew: these are the phrases native speakers use without thinking and learners meet constantly. Answers run from two words to eight, so the pack scales from quick wins to genuinely chewy ciphers. The hint gives the idiom's meaning in plain language, which makes this pack useful for anyone learning English as well as for puzzle solvers.
Solving tips
• Break the cipher into words before you break it into letters. Word lengths alone often identify the idiom.
• The short words are the way in — A, I, TO, OF, THE turn up in almost every phrase here.
• If the meaning in the hint feels familiar, say it out loud. Recognising the idiom is usually faster than decoding it letter by letter.
Common questions
Are the answers shown?
Yes. Every idiom is written out in a collapsed panel under its puzzle, which makes this pack useful for learning the phrases as well as solving them.
Are these useful for learning English?
Very. Idioms are the phrases that rarely appear in textbooks but constantly appear in conversation, and each hint explains the meaning in plain language.