Idioms and Phrases: SSC CGL PYQ List with Meanings (50 Real Questions, 2019–2025)

Idioms and phrases are unusual in SSC CGL English — unlike grammar rules, there's no logic to reason through mid-exam. You either recognize the phrase or you don't. The good news: our PYQ dataset shows SSC draws from a genuinely recurring pool rather than an endless list of obscure expressions. Several idioms below appeared in more than one exam cycle — those are flagged, and they're your highest-priority ones to lock in first.

Every entry here is extracted directly from real SSC CGL papers (2019–2025), with the correct meaning independently verified against the four options given in the original question — not assumed from memory.

50 Real PYQ Idioms and Phrases (With Meanings)

#	Idiom / Phrase	Meaning	Seen
1	Hold water	Appear to be valid or reasonable	3x
2	To take French leave	Leave without any intimation	2x
3	A hard nut to crack	A difficult problem	2x
4	On shank's mare	On foot	2x
5	A snake in the grass	A secret enemy	2x
6	Back to square one	Come to the original point	2x
7	Dead heat	Close contest that ends in a tie	2x
8	The bee's knees	Extraordinary	2x
9	To throw a fit	Express extreme anger	2x
10	Bring to light	Reveal clearly	2x
11	A close-fisted person	A miserly person	2x
12	A bed of roses	An easy and happy situation	2x
13	To take the bull by the horns	To handle difficulties directly	2x
14	To flog a dead horse	To waste one's efforts	2x
15	Hobson's Choice	An apparently free choice where there is no real alternative	2x
16	Chicken-hearted	Cowardly	2x
17	By and by	Gradually	2x
18	Pull a fast one	Trick someone	2x
19	See eye to eye	Agree with someone	2x
20	Like a dying duck in a thunderstorm	Dejected	2x
21	To paddle one's own canoe	To depend on oneself	2x
22	Look down upon	To consider someone inferior	2x
23	Keep abreast of	Keep oneself updated	2x
24	Come to the point	To speak plainly about the real issue	2x
25	Give a piece of one's mind	To rebuke someone strongly	2x
26	Cut and dried	Already decided	2x
27	Kill two birds with one stone	To achieve two results with a single effort	2x
28	Make off with	To run away with (steal and flee)	2x
29	Butterflies in the stomach	Being nervous	2x
30	Out of the woods	No longer in trouble	2x
31	Lock, stock and barrel	Completely	2x
32	On tenterhooks	Anxious	2x
33	Bang for the buck	More value for money	2x
34	Raise the bar	To set higher goals	2x
35	On cloud nine	Very happy	2x
36	A dime a dozen	Something common and not special	2x
37	Nobody's fool	Not easily deceived	2x
38	Hit the nail on the head	To accurately identify or explain something	2x
39	Jump the gun	To do something too soon and too quickly	2x
40	To read between the lines	To understand more than what the words suggest	2x
41	Start from scratch	To start or create something from the very beginning	2x
42	On the ball	To be alert	2x
43	Blow one's own trumpet	Praise oneself	1x
44	Spill the beans	Give away a secret	1x
45	To add fuel to the fire	To make a bad situation worse	1x
46	At daggers drawn	Bitterly hostile	1x
47	Costs an arm and a leg	Very expensive	1x
48	Get out of hand	Get out of control	1x
49	Give someone the cold shoulder	Ignore someone deliberately	1x
50	Pull yourself together	Calm down and regain composure	1x

How to Actually Retain These

Cramming a flat list rarely sticks for idioms, since there's no internal logic connecting the phrase to its meaning. What works better: group them by the emotion or situation they describe. Notice how many of these cluster around being troubled or anxious (on tenterhooks, butterflies in the stomach, like a dying duck in a thunderstorm), deception or secrecy (a snake in the grass, pull a fast one, spill the beans), and honesty or directness (come to the point, hit the nail on the head, take the bull by the horns). Learning them in these small emotional clusters gives your memory something to hook onto beyond rote repetition.

Also worth noticing: several idioms repeat almost every cycle (hold water, French leave, a hard nut to crack) — if your revision time is limited, prioritize the 2x-and-3x entries in this list first.

Quick FAQ

Q: Are these the exact same idioms that will appear in SSC CGL 2026?
A: We can't guarantee specific repeats, but this list reflects genuinely recurring PYQ patterns from 2019–2025 — the ones marked 2x or 3x have a real track record of reappearing across cycles.

Q: Should I memorize the literal word-for-word meaning or the general sense?
A: The general sense. SSC sometimes rephrases the "correct" option slightly differently across years, so understanding what the idiom actually communicates matters more than memorizing one exact phrasing of its meaning.