[.ca] The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (ISBN 039572774X)

From Amazon.com:
Nothing expresses the vitality, history, and character of a language quite like its idioms. Ask any non-native English speaker to make sense of a phrase such as "beg the question" or "keep your eyes peeled"; they can't do it. Idioms don't translate, which is what makes them such intriguing mirrors of how a culture evolves along with its speech. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms includes almost 10,000 of these figures of speech, slang phrases, clichés, colloquialisms, and proverbs, from "ace in the hole" to "zoom in on." Each entry defines an idiom, uses it in a sentence, then pinpoints its historical origins when possible. Some idioms, it turns out, preserve words or word uses that have otherwise fallen out of use ("one fell swoop"); others allude to long-forgotten catch phrases from movies or advertising ("more bounce for the ounce"). Consider, for instance the phrase "funny bone"--actually a pun on "humerus," the Latin name for the bone of the upper arm. Or the expression "moment of truth," a translation from the Spanish phrase originally referring to bullfighting--and first popularized, not surprisingly, by Ernest Hemingway. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms is like an archeological dig through the vernacular, and it unearths treasures such as these on every one of its pages. All those interested in language or its history should keep a copy on their library shelves.

Without history:
American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms is certainly chock full of idioms. However, the origins or backgrounds are not included. Without an origin is is difficult to fully appreciate the meaning and context of any given idiom. I did not find the book particularly useful.

Readable and practical:
I highly recommend everyone who needs to know and understand American English idioms and spoken phrases better and better to use this readable and practical book. You should not take seriously the reviews made by native American speakers into account, because it is their own language, so this book may appear to be too easy for them to learn anything new. But I would like to announce that what foreign learners need to know are in this excellent book!

Perfect idiom resource!:
If you're looking for the ideal resource for idioms, this is it! Highly recommend!

Excellent Study Aid:
Really a wonderful reference. It goes to study with me every day now. Very clearly written and descriptive definitions including very good idiom history data. Some examples - I found more unexpected data on the idiom "by and large" here than in the biggest bulkiest dictionary in the courseroom. Also the idiomatic definition of "washed-out" was the best I've ever read. "Dead as a doornail" was another good one. This book is now indispensable to me. Bravo to the author! ARC, Simon

Disappointing for native English speakers:
This is probably a great book for people learning English as a second language. But if English is your first language, it's very doubtful that you need it. I don't consider myself very knowledgeable about idioms, yet I could scarcely find more than a few that I didn't already know the meaning of. To an average American, 90 percent of this is useless. One thing I did learn was what "chickens come home to roost" means -- but that's surely not enough knowledge to justify the price of the book.