Idioms about Royalty for a Royal Wedding

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With the birth of Prince Louis last month, and Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle just a few days away, we decided it was the perfect time to look at idioms about royalty.

An idiom is a combination of words that has a figurative meaning separate from the actual definitions of the words used. With an estimated 25,000 idioms, it’s no wonder English is such a difficult language to learn!

Here are the royalty-related idioms we managed to come up with – can you think of any others?

  1. a cat may look like a king – someone of low status still has rights
  2. a horse, a horse, a kingdom for my horse – a quotation from Shakespeare’s Richard III that is sometimes repeated ironically when someone needs something unimportant
  3. a royal pain – an extremely annoying/tedious person or thing
  4. beauty queen – the winner of a beauty contest
  5. crowning glory – the best/most notable aspect of something
  6. drama queen – someone who responds to situations in a melodramatic manner
  7. fit for a king/queen – of very high quality
  8. jewel in the crown – the most valuable or successful part of something
  9. king’s ransom – a large amount of money
  10. kingdom come – the afterlife
  11. on the (porcelain) throne – using the toilet
  12. Prince Charming – the name of a fairy tale hero that used to describe an ideal man who is both handsome and of good character
  13. queen bee – a woman with a dominant position in a group or sphere
  14. royal road to – an easy way of attaining something
  15. the customer is king – the customer’s satisfaction is the highest priority
  16. the emperor’s new clothes/the emperor has no clothes – a reference to a Hans Christian Anderson tale which describes a situation in which someone believes in the importance of something that is worthless
  17. till/until kingdom come – forever
  18. to be the king/queen of something – to be the best at something
  19. to build castles in the air – to daydream about unattainable things
  20. to court someone – to flatter or flirt with someone with the hope of winning their favour.
  21. to crown it all – introducing the final event in a series of either very fortunate or very unfortunate events
  22. to give the royal treatment – to treat or care for someone very well
  23. to hold court – to be surrounded by admirers and the centre of attention
  24. to live like a king/queen – to live in great comfort and luxury
  25. to lord it over – to behave as if you are more important/know better than someone else

Try our British Nobility spelling list?

If you enjoyed this post, why not check out our other articles about idioms?

 


15 May 2018
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"Spellzone fits in beautifully with our Scope and Sequence of Phonological Awareness and Spelling. It also aligns perfectly with the four areas of spelling knowledge and uses the Brain, Ears, Eyes approach to learning spelling."
Thank you!

Teacher, Australia