Idioms about Animals

- smell a rat:
Dogs used to be used to hunt and destroy rats probably because of their strong sense of smell. Hence this expression is used when one senses that something is not quite right.

- separate the sheep from the goats:
This expression comes from the Bible. Sheep were portrayed as gentle creatures while goats were unruly, so we use this idiom to express the idea of separating something positive from something negative, e.g. the clever from those who aren't.

- a wolf in sheep's clothing:
This phrase appeared both in Aesop's Fables and the Bible and is used to speak of someone who pretends to be good or friendly, when he is actually the opposite.

- a snake in the grass:
If you see a snake in the grass, you'd be very careful, wouldn't you? We use this idiom to refer to someone we can't trust, someone who is capable of deceit.

- the tail wagging the dog:
When someone diverts attention from something important to something less important, we can say he's wagging the dog.

It is also used to say that a situation is crazy because something less important is controlling something which is far more important.

- with your tail between your legs:
When a dog is defeated by a stronger dog, it backs away with its tail between its legs; so, this idiom is used to denote that you feel ashamed because you have been defeated.


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