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Body idioms: Phrazle Body

Every phrase in this category is built around a part of the body, from the head down to the feet. Six guesses, endless puzzles.

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Idioms about the body

This category is about phrases built around parts of the body: the head, eyes, ears, nose and mouth, the hands, fingers, feet and toes, the heart, the bones and even the liver. In most of them the body part stands for something else. A hand means help or control, the heart means feelings, the eyes mean attention or judgment, and the feet mean action or courage.

Why are body idioms everywhere? Everybody has a body, so the picture is clear in any listener's mind, and a phrase about a hand or a foot needs no explanation in any century. Many of these phrases are very old, and some still carry beliefs of earlier centuries, when the heart was thought to hold courage and the liver to hold spirit and boldness.

All puzzles on this page are body phrases. Words such as HAND, HEAD, FOOT, EYE, NOSE and HEART are good letters to try early.

Body idioms and what they mean

None of these examples is used as a puzzle, so reading them will not spoil a game.

  • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: what one person finds beautiful, another may not. The idea is ancient; this wording became popular in the 1800s.
  • Don't cut off your nose to spite your face: do not harm yourself just to get back at someone else. The saying is centuries old, and its picture of a pointless act is easy to remember.
  • The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing: the parts of a group are not working together. It comes from a Bible verse about giving to charity quietly; today it is mostly said of muddled organizations.
  • Lily-livered: cowardly. The liver was once thought to be the seat of courage, so a liver as pale as a lily meant none at all.
  • Highbrow: interested in serious art and learning, sometimes too seriously. In the 1800s a high forehead was wrongly believed to be a sign of intelligence.
  • Hand over fist: very quickly and in large amounts, usually about money: making it, or losing it. It comes from sailors pulling in a rope with one hand after the other.
  • Two-faced: insincere, friendly to your face and unkind when you are gone. The picture is of a person with one face for you and another for everyone else.
  • Thick-skinned: not easily hurt by criticism or insults. Animals with a thick hide shrug off the bites and scratches that would wound others.

Body idioms FAQ

Are body idioms about health?

Rarely. Most of them use the body as a picture for something else, such as work, courage, feelings or judgment. A phrase with a hand in it is usually about help or control, not about the hand itself.

Why does the board sometimes show an apostrophe?

Many body idioms contain words like "don't" or "doesn't". The apostrophe is shown as a fixed tile that is already filled in, so you only type the letters around it.

Does the Body category have its own statistics?

Yes. Every category keeps its own games played, win percentage, streak and guess distribution. Playing here never changes your Daily statistics or your Daily streak.