Here is a long list of American idioms (many accepted and adopted by the British):

1.] shotgun wedding
2.] to make a bee-line
3.] mad as a hornet
4.] to play possum
5.] to work like a beaver
6.] to bark up the wrong tree
7.] chip on one’s shoulder
8.] cross as a bear
9.] to settle someone’s hash
10.] horse sense
11.] stag party
12.] to pull up stakes
13.] to do a land-office business
14.] dead beat
15.] corn belt
16.] stamping ground
17.] hired hand
18.] to talk turkey
19.] to kick like a steer
20.] to hold one’s horses
21.] boom and bust
22.] assembly line
23.] trouble-shooter
24.] sweat-shop
25.] lockout
26.] cooling-off period
27.] take-home pay
28.] white collar
29.] priming the pump
30.] pork barrel
31.] to slice a melon
32.] dark horse
33.] favorite son
34.] lame duck
35.] to sit on the fence
36.] landslide

The book where I took this list didn’t give the definition of each idiom. Well then, posters, this is your chance! If you know the meaning of a particular idiom then post it on this thread. 

source: Pei, Mario, The Story of the English Language, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1967

1 Shot gun wedding: that which happens in South Carolina.  Pregnancy, must get married to save face.
2 bee-line: straight as a bee in flight, go straight to where you’re going.
3, swat at a hornet and watch it get mad
4 play possum, which when chased, will play dead until enemy leaves, then gets up and runs away.  Fake it, play dead.
5 beaver, when building their dams, never quit, work hard
6bark up the wrong tree, like a dog chasing a squirrel, who has moved to another, but the dog never noticed.
7 chip on one’s shoulder, holding a grudge, ready for revenge.
8 bear hibernate in winter, don’t wake one up, really get angry.
9settle someone’s has, (must be a southern thing, I never heard it)
l0 horse sense, act accordingly
11 stag party, all men at a party,no women, usually before a wedding.
12 pull up stakes, like those holding a tent down: get up and leave.
13 land-office business?????
14 dead beat, low-down, no account bum
15 where the corn grows here in US. Central states.
16 stamping ground, where one plays,  playground, places where one frequents.
17 hired hand, an employee, usually on a farm, ranch
18 talk turkey: get down to facts, no joshing around’‘
19kick like a steer: Ouch.
20 hold one’s horses, keep the horses in line on a horse driven vehicle so they go where they are supposed to go.
21Boom and bust: succceed and fail
22assembly line: where a mechanical piece moves along a line from worker to worker, each doing the same thing to it, and to the next over and over.e.g. putting in a piece.
23trouble-shooter: one who looks for trouble to stop it before it starts.
24sweat shop: a place where people are employed for next to nothing to laboriously difficult work, like make clothing, receiving no wage, little food, little care.
25lockout: no entry, a deal cannot be made, all sides refusing to give in to get thing moving, as inlabor relations.
26cooling offperiod - after intense negotiations over some deal, all parties decide to take time to “cool off” and review what has been accomplished.
27take home pay, what a worker takes home after taxes have been removed
28white collar: workers inoffices, as opposed to blue-collar, laborers as in construction work
29priming the pump, getting the pump working before full thrust
30pork barrel, fat: too much excess in anything.
31slice a melon:?
32dark horse, a champion who came from out of nowhere, as in political elections..
33favorite son: a pet, usually used in political sense, a state or city has a candidate: their ‘favorite son’
34 lame duck, an elected official on the way out, especially when a new one has been elected, and the lame duck is just waiting for the term to expire
35 sit the fence, straddle the fence, to refuse to go one way or the other, especially in an argumen or political issue
36landslide; election, when most votes go for one candidate.

Is this a contest? I’ll join just give an ample of time to search.

9.  to settle someone’s hash: Subdue or get rid of someone; deal with a troublemaker
l0   horse sense: common sense
13. to do a land-office business: to do exceptionally well in business
31. slice a melon:?

Thanks for your help.  Slice a melon? Got me.

It should mean “to work on a honey-do list.”

How do you get ‘honey do ” list from slice a melon? 
Forget it, I’m sure it is a caronliner thing that would take 6-8 postings to explain, and by then will have lost its thrust.

Honey-dew is a type of melon. Honey-do is a list. Slice the melon=reduce the list.

One post.

You’re so bright, I bet your father called you son.

That’s a pun. You’re encroaching.

Just an expression.  Far be it from me to encroach.  I can make puns whenever I want, and since I don’t make a living out making them, I can be excused. You do not have any copyrighted. You just abuse them.

I like the idiom, stomping ground because it reminds me of “Stomp the Yard”, one of my favorite movies.

I return to my old “stomping grounds” once in awhile, just to revive old memories.  I enjoy it much.

You listed all those old expressions at the top of this thread.
Do you have a lead on where the expression “pulling my leg” comes from?  It means to fool a person.

I am afraid I will have to keep a ‘stiff upper lip’ as this is another one born in the USA. I am not sure, perhaps somebody overheard Bertie Wooster talking to Jeeves then got it into print first. :]

It’s funny, but in all the Anne Perry novels (Monk, Thomas & Charlotte Pitt) novels I always get the impression the butler has a “stiff upper lip”.

Jo - do you have a site (I cannot find one by simply googling that is ‘adequate’)
that would show or explain houses of the 1800’s?
I am interested in how they were set up: floor plan:; withdrawing room, boudoir, library, etc.  They seem HUGE, and
the baize door fascinates me.  Was it cloth. Google images show some pictures, but still leave me in the dark.

I am not sure but perhaps if you looked at the National Trust site (they may try to make you join) as they have a lot of properties or RIBA which is the British architects site or, of course, you could just look at the Cludo board. :} I do some work on the yourpower2be.com site for a friend of mine.

Butlers not only have stiff upper lips but they are positively rigid ones. Anyone but the Aristocracy are in total fear of them.