Still confused? The best thing is to give you some examples. Four examples, in fact, and each one is about legs or feet!

　　Kevin and Joanne go with some friends to a disco club. Kevin likes dancing. But he is no good at it. He stands on the dance floor, jumping up and down and waving his arms in the air. It is not a pretty sight, but Kevin is happy. Bless him! And Kevin has two left feet. That does not mean that he actually has two feet on the left side of his body. No, it means that he is clumsy – he can’t keep his feet in time with the music, and he falls over a lot. He has two left feet.

　　Charles is Kevin and Joanne’s friend. But they do not see him very much, because Charles is always travelling. He is never completely happy where he is – he always wants to be somewhere else. He gets a job, but after a few months he resigns and looks for another job, or he goes travelling. He rents a flat, but he will not stay there for long. In a few months he will move to another flat, or to a different city. We say that Charles has itchy feet. That means, he is not happy staying for a long time in the same place or the same job. He always wants to be moving to somewhere new.

　　Harry’s car broke down last week. It stopped on the motorway and he had to phone a garage to come and tow his car away. Then he had to pay to have his car repaired. It was very expensive. “It cost me an arm and a leg”, says Harry.

　　And finally, let us meet Joanne’s friend Tracey. Tracey is lovely young woman, but she is always putting her foot in it. That means, she says the wrong things – she offends people, or embarrsses them, or makes them upset, without meaning to. So, for example, she hears that Harry has just split up with his girlfriend. All of Harry’s friends know that Harry gets very upset whenever he thinks about his former girlfriend. They know that the best thing is not to talk to him about it. But not Tracey. “I hear you split up with your girlfriend”, she says to Harry. She has put her foot in it – again!

　　Do you understand now what an idiom is? There is a quiz attached to the podcast, with some more idioms in it. You can find it on the podcast website.