OET Training Center Tips: 12 Health Idioms You Need to Know Enhance your OET center classes by expanding your practical vocabulary! Make sure you know how to use the following health-related idiomatic expressions before you take the exam.
OET Training Center Tips: Idioms about symptoms These are the idioms you can use to talk about someone who looks or feels ill.
1. Come down with something – It’s used to indicate one’s development of illness. Substitute the word “something” with the disease the patient contracted. Example: “Based on your symptoms, I think you are coming down with measles.”
2. (Like) death warmed up – It’s used to describe someone who looks tired or sick. Example: My manager told me to take the rest of the day off. She said I looked like death warmed up.
3. Ready to drop – It’s used to describe someone who looks too tired to stay standing. Example: You look like you’re ready to drop. Are you sure you don’t want me to take you to the infirmary?
OET Training Center Tips: Idioms about survival and recovery These are the idioms that you can use to talk about someone who’s recuperating or have successfully recuperated from a health condition. 4. Pull through – It means to recover from or survive one’s illness or injury. It’s usually used when the patient came close to death. Example: His operation has a lot of complications. Thankfully, he pulled through.
5. Keep body and soul together – It means that someone was able to survive through something serious or life-threatening. Example: The fire left him orphaned and homeless, but somehow he managed to keep body and soul together.
6. On the mend – It is used to refer to someone who is recovering well from disease or injury. Example: My cousin had to undergo emergency surgery last week due to appendicitis. She’s on the mend now.
7. Land of the living – A witty and humorous way of saying someone is still alive and kicking. Example: “Hello there! Glad to see that you’re still in the land of the living.”
8. Clean bill of health – It refers to a certificate or document that indicates one’s satisfactory health. Example: Maria’s boss told her that she could only come back to work if she can produce a clean bill of health.
OET Training Center Tips: Idioms about death These are the idioms that you can use to talk about someone who is either at death’s door or have already passed away.
9. Living on borrowed time – It’s used to refer to someone who continues to survive against expectations, with the implication that this will not hold true for much longer. Example: He knows he’s living on borrowed time and so has taken to accomplishing his bucket list with more vigor.
10. Meet one’s maker – It’s a humorous way to refer to death and its possibility. It’s also often used to talk about someone who has passed away. Example: Drink your medicine on time if you don’t want to meet your maker anytime soon.
11. On one’s last legs – It refers to someone who is near the end of their life. Or, when used to refer to objects, something that is near the end point of its usefulness. Example: Please visit Marco in the hospital. He’s on his last legs.
12. One’s number is up – It’s used to refer to someone who is either in serious difficulty or near the end of his or her life. Example: This is the fifth time he’s been rushed to the ER, and it looks like his number is up.
Do you want to learn more helpful expressions that can help you ace the OET exam? Enroll in our OET training center today! Click here to find out more about our course offers and coverage.