Definition of "idiom"

idiom

/ˈɪdi.əm/

noun
plural idioms or idiomata
1. A manner of speaking, a mode of expression peculiar to a language, language family, or group of people.
  1. (programming) A programming construct or phraseology that is characteristic of the language.
    Quotations
    I have to use the same assignment and call to raw_input in two places. How can I avoid that? I can use the while True/break idiom: […]
    2005, Magnus Lie Hetland, Beginning Python: From Novice to Professional, page 100
2. A language or language variety; specifically, a restricted dialect used in a given historical period, context etc.
  Quotations
  Many parents and teachers have become irritated to the point of distraction at the way the weed-style growth of "like" has spread through the idiom of the young.
  2010 January 13, Christopher Hitchens, “The Other L-Word”, in Vanity Fair
3. An established phrasal expression whose meaning may not be deducible from the literal meanings of its component words.
  Quotations
  You’re history, we say […] . Surely it is an American idiom. Impossible to imagine a postwar European saying, “You’re history. . That’s history,” meaning fuhgeddaboudit, pal.
  2008, Patricia Hampl, “You’re History”, in Patricia Hampl, Elaine Tyler May, editors, Tell Me True: Memoir, History, and Writing a Life, Minnesota Historical Society, page 134
4. An artistic style (for example, in art, architecture, or music); an instance of such a style.

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