Idiom Literalization Images & Prompts

Piece of Cake Jigsaw Slices

Tough Cookie with Boxing Gloves

Smart Cookie Solving a Tangram Puzzle

Needle in a haystack — sewing needle embedded in a haystack

Brainstorm — glass brain holding a storm inside

Pulling strings — large hand pulling strings of tiny managers

All ears — clay listener built from oversized ears

Cold feet — frozen feet inside white wedding shoes

Cutting corners — tabletop with its four corners cut off

Walking on air — man walking on air above a sidewalk

Silver lining — storm cloud opening to a silver lining

Frog in your throat — glass singer with a frog in its throat

Elephant in the room — elephant ignored in a conference room

Thought bubble — soap bubble holding a tiny study room

Sitting on the fence — person sitting balanced on a garden fence

Bending over backward — mannequin bending backward to hold an umbrella

Missing the boat — traveler reaching after a departing boat

Frozen assets — gold bullion frozen inside an open safe

Liquid assets — gold coins melting into a liquid pool

Golden handshake — gold hands clasping over falling coins

Food for thought — brain-shaped bread sandwich with fillings

Train of thought — miniature train emerging from a ceramic head

Putting the cart before the horse — wooden cart standing before the horse

Deadline — worker running toward a barrier of clocks

Walking on eggshells — tiptoeing across a floor of eggshells

Writer's block — writer blocked by a huge stone cube

Storm in a teacup — miniature storm contained inside a teacup

A square peg in a round hole — square wooden peg jammed in a round hole

Butterflies in your stomach — porcelain performer with butterflies inside

Cold shoulder — person turning away with an icy shoulder

Chain of thought — chain of speech-bubble links from a head

Breaking the mold — glazed ceramic bird leaving its broken mold

Under the weather — tired person under a personal rain cloud

Fish out of water — goldfish in an office chair out of water

Break the ice — handshake through a freshly broken ice pane

Brain freeze — brain-shaped ice pop coated in frost

Thinking outside the box — person building outside an open box

Painting the town red — paintbrush coating a miniature town red

Raining cats and dogs — plush cats and dogs raining from a cloud

When pigs fly — pink pig flying on feathered wings

Spill the beans — speech bubble spilling beans at a cafe

Tying the knot — wooden wedding figures tightening a rope knot

Burning the candle at both ends — long candle burning at both ends

Up the creek without a paddle — canoeist stranded without a paddle in a creek

Going the extra mile — runner unrolling extra asphalt onto the road

Barking up the wrong tree — beagle barking at an empty tree

Skeleton in the closet — skeleton hiding inside a wooden wardrobe

Between a rock and a hard place — person wedged between a boulder and a wall

Jumping on the bandwagon — leaping onto a wagon of musicians

Head in the clouds — office worker with head inside a small cloud

Let the cat out of the bag — cat stepping halfway out of a bag

Apple of my eye — red apple reflected in a human pupil

All your eggs in one basket — overfilled egg basket beside empty baskets