"McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs" by Richard A. Spears

This dictionary is a collection of the idiomatic phrases and sentences that occur frequently in American English. Many of them occur in some fashion in other varieties of English also.
A major goal of this dictionary is to make certain that each definition of a phrase illustrates the meaning of the phrase and matches it in syntax.


A second goal is to provide the learner with enough information about the many forms that an idiom might take to allow the user to recognize it in a variety of contexts and to be able to use it in speech and writing. A third goal is to make the details accessible to the learner. Idiomatic expressions and their variants are complex and unpredictable. You will find commonly used phrasal verbs, idiomatic expressions, proverbial expressions, and clichés. The dictionary contains more than 24,000 entries, each defined and followed by one or two example sentences. It also includes a Phrase-Finder Index with more than 60,000 entries.

Contents
About This Dictionary
How to Use This Dictionary
Acknowledgments
Terms and Symbols
Dictionary
Phrase-Finder Index