Idioms are vibrant, expressive phrases that add warmth and character to conversations about the place we hold dearest—our homes. Whether you’re talking about the cozy comfort of your living space, the chaos of daily life, or the sense of belonging that a home provides, idioms can make these discussions more engaging and relatable.
In this comprehensive listicle, we’ll explore 52 idioms related to home, unpacking their meanings and showing how they can bring a touch of flair to your conversations about domestic life. So, let’s step through the front door of this linguistic journey and discover the colorful world of idioms for home.
What is an Idiom for Home?
Idioms for home are figurative expressions that capture the essence of domestic life, from the emotional connections we forge to the physical spaces we inhabit. These phrases often reflect the joys, challenges, and quirks of home life, making conversations more vivid and meaningful. Below, we’ll dive into each idiom, explain its meaning, and provide a sentence to illustrate its use in context.
Idioms for Home
1. Home Sweet Home
Meaning: An expression of joy or relief at returning to the comfort and familiarity of one’s own home.
In a Sentence: After a long business trip, she sighed with contentment, murmuring, “Home sweet home,” as she sank into her favorite armchair.
2. Make Yourself at Home
Meaning: An invitation to feel comfortable and relaxed in someone else’s home, as if it were your own.
In a Sentence: When the guests arrived, she warmly welcomed them, saying, “Please, make yourself at home and help yourself to anything in the kitchen.”
3. Home Is Where the Heart Is
Meaning: The idea that home is defined by the people and emotions you cherish, not just a physical location.
In a Sentence: Though they moved frequently, they always believed that home is where the heart is, as long as they were together as a family.
4. A Man’s Home Is His Castle
Meaning: A home is a place where one has complete control, privacy, and security, like a king in a castle.
In a Sentence: He loved retreating to his study, firmly believing that a man’s home is his castle, where he could unwind undisturbed.
5. Keep the Home Fires Burning
Meaning: To maintain the warmth, comfort, and stability of a home, often during someone’s absence.
In a Sentence: While he was deployed overseas, his wife kept the home fires burning, ensuring their house remained a welcoming sanctuary.
6. Charity Begins at Home
Meaning: One should prioritize helping or caring for family and loved ones before assisting others.
In a Sentence: She reminded her brother that charity begins at home when he offered to volunteer abroad but ignored their struggling parents.
7. Bring Home the Bacon
Meaning: To earn a living or provide financial support for the household.
In a Sentence: He worked tirelessly at two jobs to bring home the bacon and ensure his family had everything they needed.
8. Home Away from Home
Meaning: A place where one feels as comfortable and at ease as they do in their own home.
In a Sentence: The cozy bed-and-breakfast by the lake became their home away from home during their annual summer retreats.
9. Eat Out of House and Home
Meaning: To consume a large amount of food or resources, often humorously referring to someone with a big appetite.
In a Sentence: With three teenage boys in the house, she joked that they were eating her out of house and home with their endless hunger.
10. The Lights Are On, but Nobody’s Home
Meaning: Describes someone who appears unaware, distracted, or not fully present mentally.
In a Sentence: When she asked him about the grocery list, he stared blankly, prompting her to tease, “The lights are on, but nobody’s home!”
11. Nothing to Write Home About
Meaning: Something unremarkable or not worth mentioning, lacking excitement or significance.
In a Sentence: The new furniture store was nothing to write home about, with its limited selection and high prices.
12. Hit Close to Home
Meaning: To affect someone deeply or personally, often because it relates to their own experiences.
In a Sentence: The documentary about family struggles hit close to home, reminding her of her own childhood challenges.
13. Get a Foot in the Door
Meaning: To gain an initial opportunity or entry into a situation, often related to starting a new venture or home-related project.
In a Sentence: By volunteering to help with the neighborhood committee, she got a foot in the door to influence local housing policies.
14. Home and Hearth
Meaning: Refers to the warmth, comfort, and coziness of domestic life and family.
In a Sentence: After years of traveling, he longed for the simple pleasures of home and hearth, surrounded by loved ones.
15. Burn the House Down
Meaning: To cause significant disruption or chaos, often used humorously to describe an intense effort or mistake.
In a Sentence: She warned her kids not to burn the house down while cooking dinner, knowing their tendency to get distracted.
16. A Roof Over Your Head
Meaning: Having a place to live, emphasizing the basic necessity of shelter.
In a Sentence: Though they faced financial struggles, they were grateful to have a roof over their heads and a place to call home.
17. Clean House
Meaning: To thoroughly organize, tidy up, or make significant changes to improve a situation, often in a home or organization.
In a Sentence: After the holidays, she decided to clean house, donating old clothes and reorganizing every room.
18. Put Your House in Order
Meaning: To organize one’s personal or professional affairs to ensure everything is in place.
In a Sentence: Before starting her new job, she took a weekend to put her house in order, sorting bills and schedules.
19. Home Turf
Meaning: One’s familiar territory or environment where they feel confident and in control.
In a Sentence: Hosting the family reunion on her home turf gave her the confidence to manage every detail flawlessly.
20. Like a House on Fire
Meaning: To get along extremely well or make rapid progress, often with enthusiasm.
In a Sentence: The new neighbors got along like a house on fire, chatting for hours over coffee in their shared backyard.
21. Go Big or Go Home
Meaning: To fully commit to doing something impressively or extravagantly, or not bother doing it at all.
In a Sentence: When decorating for the holidays, she decided to go big or go home, covering the house in dazzling lights.
22. Home Run
Meaning: A great success or achievement, often used to describe something perfectly executed.
In a Sentence: Her renovation of the old kitchen was a home run, earning compliments from everyone who visited.
23. Leave Home
Meaning: To depart from one’s place of residence, often for an extended period or to start a new phase of life.
In a Sentence: Leaving home for college was bittersweet, as she was excited for independence but missed her family.
24. The Home Stretch
Meaning: The final phase or last part of a task, project, or journey, often with a sense of nearing completion.
In a Sentence: With only one room left to paint, they were in the home stretch of their house renovation.
25. Build Castles in the Air
Meaning: To daydream or make unrealistic plans or hopes, often about an idealized home or future.
In a Sentence: She loved to build castles in the air, imagining a sprawling countryside home she might one day own.
26. A House Divided
Meaning: A situation where people within a home or group are in conflict, weakening their unity.
In a Sentence: The siblings’ constant arguments made their household feel like a house divided, with tension at every turn.
27. Sweep It Under the Rug
Meaning: To hide or ignore a problem or issue rather than addressing it directly.
In a Sentence: Instead of fixing the leaky faucet, they chose to sweep it under the rug, hoping it wouldn’t worsen.
28. Home Free
Meaning: To be in a position where success or completion is assured, with no further obstacles.
In a Sentence: After paying off the mortgage, they felt home free, finally owning their house outright.
29. Feather Your Nest
Meaning: To make your home more comfortable or luxurious, often by accumulating wealth or resources.
In a Sentence: With her promotion, she began to feather her nest, buying new furniture and artwork for the living room.
30. Lock, Stock, and Barrel
Meaning: Completely or entirely, often referring to moving or taking everything from a home.
In a Sentence: When they relocated abroad, they took their belongings lock, stock, and barrel, leaving nothing behind.
31. Bring the House Down
Meaning: To create a strong positive reaction or excitement, often through a performance or event at home.
In a Sentence: Her karaoke performance at the family party brought the house down, with everyone cheering wildly.
32. On the House
Meaning: Something provided for free, often in the context of hospitality at home.
In a Sentence: When they hosted the barbecue, the drinks were on the house, delighting their guests.
33. Out of the Woods
Meaning: To be past a difficult situation or crisis, often related to home or family challenges.
In a Sentence: After months of repairs, they were finally out of the woods with their home’s plumbing issues.
34. Open House
Meaning: An event where a home is open for visitors to explore, often used in real estate or social gatherings.
In a Sentence: They hosted an open house to show off their newly renovated home, welcoming neighbors and friends.
35. Home Truths
Meaning: Honest, sometimes uncomfortable facts or realities about a situation, often related to home life.
In a Sentence: During the family meeting, she shared some home truths about their overspending, urging everyone to budget better.
36. Under One’s Roof
Meaning: Living together in the same household, often implying shared responsibilities or rules.
In a Sentence: As long as you live under my roof, you’ll follow our house rules, her parents firmly told her.
37. Set Up House
Meaning: To establish a home, often by moving in together or starting a new household.
In a Sentence: After their engagement, they set up house in a charming apartment downtown, excited for their new life together.
38. House of Cards
Meaning: A fragile or unstable situation that could collapse easily, often used metaphorically for a home or plan.
In a Sentence: Their financial plan was like a house of cards, crumbling when unexpected repairs arose.
39. Home Cooking
Meaning: Food prepared at home, often associated with comfort, love, and tradition.
In a Sentence: Nothing beat the taste of her grandmother’s home cooking, especially her famous Sunday roast.
40. Keep House
Meaning: To manage or maintain a household, including tasks like cleaning, cooking, and organizing.
In a Sentence: While her parents were away, she had to keep house, ensuring everything ran smoothly.
41. Home Base
Meaning: A central place or starting point, often referring to one’s primary residence or safe haven.
In a Sentence: After traveling for months, she was eager to return to her home base and recharge.
42. Break the Ice
Meaning: To start a conversation or make people feel more comfortable, often in a home setting.
In a Sentence: At the housewarming party, a fun game helped break the ice among the new neighbors.
43. Home Ground
Meaning: A familiar or advantageous environment, similar to home turf, where one feels confident.
In a Sentence: Cooking in her own kitchen was her home ground, where she felt most creative and in control.
44. Lay Down Roots
Meaning: To settle permanently in a place and establish a home or community connections.
In a Sentence: After years of moving, they decided to lay down roots in a small town, buying a house and joining local groups.
45. Home in on
Meaning: To focus on or target something specific, often used in the context of home improvements or goals.
In a Sentence: They homed in on renovating the backyard, determined to create a perfect outdoor space.
46. A Stone’s Throw
Meaning: A very short distance, often used to describe proximity to home or a neighbor.
In a Sentence: Their new house was a stone’s throw from the park, making it ideal for morning walks.
47. Safe as Houses
Meaning: Extremely safe or secure, often referring to the reliability of a home or situation.
In a Sentence: With the new security system installed, their home felt safe as houses, giving them peace of mind.
48. Home Front
Meaning: The domestic or civilian side of life, often used in contrast to external challenges or conflicts.
In a Sentence: While he was busy at work, she managed the home front, keeping everything organized and running smoothly.
49. Knock on Wood
Meaning: To wish for continued good luck, often by tapping on something wooden, used in home-related contexts.
In a Sentence: The house hadn’t needed major repairs in years, and she said, “Knock on wood,” hoping the streak would continue.
50. Homebound
Meaning: Confined or restricted to one’s home, often due to circumstances like illness or weather.
In a Sentence: During the snowstorm, they were homebound, spending the day cozied up with books and hot cocoa.
51. Rule the Roost
Meaning: To be the dominant or controlling figure in a household.
In a Sentence: Though she was the youngest, her strong personality let her rule the roost in their lively home.
52. Homebody
Meaning: Someone who prefers staying at home and enjoys domestic activities over going out.
In a Sentence: As a homebody, she found joy in quiet evenings spent gardening or reading in her cozy living room.
Quizzes About The Idioms in The Article
Quiz 1: Home Sweet Home
What does the idiom “Home sweet home” express?
a) A desire to leave home
b) Joy or relief at returning to one’s home
c) A complaint about household chores
d) A wish to redecorate
Quiz 2: Make Yourself at Home
What is the meaning of “Make yourself at home”?
a) To rearrange someone’s furniture
b) To invite someone to feel comfortable
c) To leave a place quickly
d) To clean someone’s house
Quiz 3: Home Is Where the Heart Is
What does “Home is where the heart is” suggest?
a) Home is a physical building
b) Home is defined by emotions and loved ones
c) Home is temporary
d) Home requires constant maintenance
Quiz 4: Bring Home the Bacon
What does the idiom “Bring home the bacon” mean?
a) To cook a meal
b) To earn a living for the household
c) To invite guests over
d) To save money
Quiz 5: Eat Out of House and Home
What situation is described by “Eat out of house and home”?
a) Consuming a large amount of food or resources
b) Renovating a kitchen
c) Hosting a small dinner party
d) Moving to a new house
Quiz 6: Nothing to Write Home About
If something is “nothing to write home about,” what is it?
a) Exciting and noteworthy
b) Unremarkable or not special
c) Expensive and luxurious
d) Difficult to achieve
Quiz 7: Hit Close to Home
What does “Hit close to home” imply?
a) To physically strike a house
b) To affect someone personally or emotionally
c) To visit a neighbor
d) To miss an opportunity
Quiz 8: Like a House on Fire
When is it appropriate to say “Like a house on fire”?
a) When someone is arguing
b) When people get along very well
c) When a task fails
d) When cleaning a house
Quiz 9: A Roof Over Your Head
What is the meaning of “A roof over your head”?
a) Having a place to live
b) Owning a large house
c) Renovating a home
d) Hosting a party
Quiz 10: Go Big or Go Home
When someone says “Go big or go home,” what are they encouraging?
a) To take a cautious approach
b) To fully commit to an impressive effort
c) To stay indoors
d) To avoid risks
Answers:
- b
- b
- b
- b
- a
- b
- b
- b
- a
- b
Conclusion
Idioms for home are like the cozy throw blankets of language—they add warmth, personality, and comfort to our conversations about domestic life. Whether you’re chatting about the joys of returning to your sanctuary, the challenges of maintaining a household, or the emotional bonds that make a house a home, these idioms offer a creative way to express yourself. So, the next time you’re talking about your home, sprinkle in a few of these phrases to make your discussions more lively and memorable.