15 Medical and Health Idioms




✔ A bitter pill to swallow - an unpleasant fact that one must accept 
● Losing the election was a bitter pill to swallow for the candidate. 

✔ Break down - to lose control of one's emotions, to have a nervous collapse
● The woman broke down while the lawyer questioned her at the trial.

✔ Break out in a cold sweat - to perspire from fever or anxiety
● I usually break out in a cold sweat when I have to make a speech.

✔ Bundle of nerves - a very nervous or anxious person
● The woman is a bundle of nerves after looking after her three children.

✔ Burn (oneself) out - to become very tired and almost sick from doing something for a long time or from working too hard
● After working long hours for many months the woman finally burned herself out.

✔ A dose of one's own medicine - the same treatment that one gives to others (usually this has a negative meaning)
● We gave the boy a dose of his own medicine after he bullied us.

✔ Feel on top of the world - to feel very healthy
● I have been feeling on top of the world since I quit my job.

✔ Get (something) out of one's system - to get rid of the desire to do something
● I went on a short holiday so that I could get travelling out of my system.

✔ Green around the gills - to look sick
● My colleague was looking a little green around the gills when he came to work today.

✔ Hang out one's shingle - to open an office or business
● The doctor decided to hang out his shingle as soon as he finished medical school.

✔ Have foot-in-mouth disease - to embarrass oneself through a silly mistake
● The man has foot-in-mouth disease and is always saying stupid things.

✔ Just what the doctor ordered - exactly what is needed or wanted
● A nice hot bath was just what the doctor ordered after my long day at work.

✔ Kick a habit - to break or stop a bad habit
● The man used to smoke but he was able to kick the habit.

✔ An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure - it is easier to prevent something bad than to deal with the results
● An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and I decided to stay home and rest rather than go out in the cold with my sore throat.

✔ Rub salt in (someone's) wound - to deliberately make someone's unhappiness or shame or misfortune worse
● My supervisor rubbed salt in my wound when he continued to criticize me for my mistake.

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