List of Phrases from Shakespeare

The following is an incomplete list of well-known phrases in Shakespeare's works.

Note: Not all of the following were coined by Shakespeare.

• "A countenance more in sorrow than in anger"
• "A Daniel come to judgement"
• "A dish fit for the gods"
• "A fool's paradise"
• "A foregone conclusion"
• "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse"
• "A ministering angel shall my sister be"
• "A plague on both your houses"
• "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
• "A sea change"
• "A sorry sight"
• "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety"
• "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio"
• "All corners of the world"
• "All one to me"
• "All that glisters is not gold"
• "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players"
• "All's well that ends well"
• "An ill-favoured thing sir, but mine own"
• "And shining morning face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school"
• "And thereby hangs a tale"
• "As cold as any stone"
• "As dead as a doornail"
• "As good luck would have it"
• "As merry as the day is long"
• "As pure as the driven snow"
• "At one fell swoop"
• "Bag and baggage"
• "Beast with two backs"
• "Beware the ides of March"
• "Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks"
• "Brevity is the soul of wit"
• "But screw your courage to the sticking-place"
• "But, for my own part, it was Greek to me"
• "Come the three corners of the world in arms"
• "Come what come may"
• "Comparisons are odorous"
• "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war"
• "Discretion is the better part of valour"
• "Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble"
• "Eaten out of house and home"
• "Et tu, Brute"
• "Even at the turning of the tide"
• "Exceedingly well read"
• "Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog"
• "Fair play"
• "Fancy free"
• "Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man"
• "For ever and a day"
• "Frailty, thy name is woman"
• "Foul play"
• "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears"
• "Good men and true"
• "Good riddancee"
• "Green eyed monster"
• "Hark, hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings"
• "He will give the Devil his due"
• "Heart's content"
• "High time"
• "His beard was as white as snow"
• "Hoist by your own petard"
• "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child"
• "I bear a charmed life"
• "I have not slept one wink"
• "I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips"
• "I will wear my heart upon my sleeve"
• "If music be the food of love, play on"
• "In a pickle"
• "In my mind's eye, Horatio"
• "In stitches"
• "In the twinkling of an eye"
• "Is this a dagger which I see before me?"
• "It beggar'd all description"
• "It is meat and drink to me"
• "Lay it on with a trowel"
• "Lie low"
• "Like the Dickens"
• "Love is blind"
• "Make your hair stand on end"
• "Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water"
• "Milk of human kindness"
• "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows"
• "More fool you"
• "More honoured in the breach than in the observance"
• "Much Ado about Nothing"
• "Mum's the word"
• "My salad days"
• "Neither a borrower nor a lender be"
• "No more cakes and ale?"
• "Now is the winter of our discontent"
• "O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo"
• "Off with his head"
• "Oh, that way madness lies"
• "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more"
• "Out of the jaws of death"
• "Pound of flesh"
• "Primrose path"
• "Rhyme nor reason"
• "Salad days"
• "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything"
• "Screw your courage to the sticking place"
• "Send him packing"
• "Set your teeth on edge"
• "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
• "Short shrift"
• "Shuffle off this mortal coil"
• "Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep"
• "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em"
• "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark"
• "Star crossed lovers"
• "Stiffen the sinews"
• "Stony hearted"
• "Such stuff as dreams are made on"
• "The course of true love never did run smooth"
• "The crack of doom"
• "The Devil incarnate"
• "The game is afoot"
• "The game is up"
• "The lady doth protest too much, methinks"
• "The live-long day"
• "The quality of mercy is not strained"
• "The Queen's English"
• "The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"
• "The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on"
• "There's method in my madness"
• "Thereby hangs a tale"
• "This is the short and the long of it"
• "This is very midsummer madness"
• "This precious stone set in the silver sea, this sceptered isle"
• "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it"
• "Thus far into the bowels of the land"
• "To be or not to be, that is the question"
• "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily"
• "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub"
• "Too much of a good thing"
• "Tower of strength"
• "Truth will out"
• "Under the greenwood tree"
• "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"
• "Vanish into thin air"
• "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers"
• "We have seen better days"
• "What a piece of work is man"
• "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"
• "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions"
• "Where the bee sucks, there suck I"
• "While you live, tell truth and shame the Devil!"
• "Who wooed in haste, and means to wed at leisure"
• "Wild goose chase new item"
• "Woe is me"

External links

• Shakespeare's words and phrases
• Words and Phrases Coined by Shakespeare
• The Phrase Finder — meanings and origins of sayings and phrases
• List of Bible Phrases — some of these are often confused to be from Shakespeare.