Popular Idioms About Learning

Here are some of the most common English idioms related to learning and education, along with their meanings:

Learn the ropes – To understand how to do a particular job or activity.

Hit the books – To begin studying hard.

Burn the midnight oil – To study or work late into the night.

Learn something by heart – To memorize something completely.

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks – It’s difficult to change someone’s habits or ways of learning.

Practice makes perfect – Regular practice leads to improvement and mastery.

Back to the drawing board – To start again from the beginning when something fails.

School of hard knocks – Learning through life’s difficult experiences instead of formal education.

By trial and error – Learning by trying different methods until finding one that works.

A quick study – Someone who learns things very easily and quickly.

Put on your thinking cap – To start thinking seriously about a problem.

Old school – Referring to traditional methods of learning or doing things.

Learn the hard way – To gain knowledge through difficult or painful experiences.

Can’t make heads or tails of it – To be unable to understand or learn something.

Pass with flying colors – To succeed easily, especially in an exam or test.

Teach someone a lesson – To show someone the consequences of their actions so they learn from it.

Learn the ABCs – To understand the basics of a subject.

Burn into one’s memory – Something learned so well it is never forgotten.

Dropout – A person who leaves school or stops learning before finishing.

Make the grade – To meet the required standard in learning or performance.