Meaning: anthills

n.
a mound of earth made by ants as they dig their nest

ills Idiom, Proverb

no-frills

without unnecessary additions or luxuries We just booked a no-frills motel room in Toronto.

pissed to the gills

drunk, plastered, snapped He was pissed to the gills, so we sent him home in a taxi.

run for the hills

run away to a safe place, run and hide A tiger has escaped from the zoo! Run for the hills!

sloshed to the gills

very drunk, loaded, plastered, She was sloshed to the gills and singing very badly.

tilt at windmills

Idiom(s): tilt at windmills

Theme: FIGHTING

to fight battles with imaginary enemies; to fight against unimportant enemies or issues. (As with the fictional character, Don Quixote, who attacked windmills.)
• Aren't you too smart to go around tilting at windmills?
• I'm not going to fight this issue. I've wasted too much of my life tilting at windmills.

pale around the gills

Idiom(s): pale around the gills AND blue around the gills; green around the gills

Theme: HEALTH - POOR

looking sick. (Informal. The around can be replaced with about.)
• John is looking a little pale around the gills. What's wrong?
• Oh, I feel a little green about the gills.

old as the hills

Idiom(s): (as) old as the hills

Theme: AGE - OLD

very old.
• The children think their mother's as old as the hills, but she's only forty.
• That song's not new. It's old as the hills.

millstone about one's neck

Idiom(s): millstone about one's neck

Theme: BURDEN

a continual burden or handicap.
• This huge and expensive house is a millstone about my neck.
• Bill's inability to read is a millstone about his neck.

green around the gills

blue around the gills

He who wills the end wills the means.

If you are determined to do something you will find a way.

Head for the hills

If people head for the hills, they run away from trouble.

Millstone round your neck

A millstone around your neck is a problem that prevents you from doing what you want to do.

Stuffed to the gills

If someone is stuffed to the gills, they have eaten a lot and are very full.

fed to the gills|fed|fed to the teeth|gills|teeth

adj. phr. Having had too much of something; at the end of your patience; disgusted; bored; tired. People get fed up with anyone who brags all the time. I've had enough of his complaints. I'm fed up. He was fed to the teeth with television and sold his set to a cousin. John quit football because he was fed to the gills with practice.
Compare: SICK AND TIRED.

green around the gills|gills|green|pale|pale aroun

adj. phr., slang Pale-faced from fear or sickness; sickly; nauseated. Bill's father took him for a ride in his boat while the waves were rough, and when he came back he was green around the gills. The car almost hit Mary crossing the street, and she was pale around the gills because it came so close.

Also used with other prepositions besides "around", as "about", "at", "under", and with other colors, as "blue", "pink", "yellow", "white".

head for the hills|head|head for|hills

v. phr., informal To get far away in a hurry; run away and hide.

Often used imperatively. Head for the hills. The bandits are coming. He saw the crowd chasing him, so he headed for the hills. When they saw the mean boy coming, they all headed for the hills.
Compare: BEAT IT, LIGHT OUT, TAKE TO THE WOODS.

millstone around one's neck|millstone|neck

n. phr. An intolerable burden. Max said that his old car was a millstone around his neck.
Compare: MONKEY ON ONE'S BACK.

no frills|frill|frills

n. phr. A firm or product that offers no extras; a generic product that carries no expensive label. We went on a no frills trip to Europe with few luxuries.

old as the hills|hill|hills|old

adj. phr. Very old; ancient. "Why didn't you laugh?" she asked. "Because that joke is as old as the hills," he answered.

tilt at windmills|tilt|windmill|windmills

v. phr., literary To do battle with an imaginary foe (after Cervantes' Don Quixote). John is a nice guy but when it comes to departmental meetings he wastes everybody's time by constantly tilting at windmills.

fed to the gills

fed to the gills
Also, fed to the teeth; fed up. Disgusted, unable or unwilling to put up with something. For example, I'm fed to the gills with these delays (the gills here is slang for “mouth”), or He was fed to the teeth with her excuses, or I'm fed up—let's leave right now. Of these colloquial expressions, fed up, alluding to being overfull from having overeaten, dates from about 1900, and the others from the first half of the 1900s. Also see up to one's ears.

gills

gills
see fed to the gills; green about the gills.

green about the gills

green about the gills
Also, green around the gills. Looking ill or nauseated, as in After that bumpy ride she looked quite green about the gills. The use of green to describe an ailing person's complexion dates from about 1300, and gills has referred to the flesh around human jaws and ears since the 1600s. Although in the 1800s white and yellow were paired with gills to suggest illness, the alliterative green has survived them.

mills of the gods grind slowly

mills of the gods grind slowly
One's destiny is inevitable even if it takes considerable time to arrive. For example, I'm sure he'll be wealthy one day, though the mills of the gods grind slowly. This expression comes from ancient Greek, translated as “The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind small.” In English it appeared in George Herbert's Jacula Prudentum (1640) as “God's mill grinds slow but sure.”

millstone around one's neck

millstone around one's neck
A heavy burden, as in Julie finds Grandma, who is crabby, a millstone around her neck. The literal hanging of a millstone about the neck is mentioned as a punishment in the New Testament (Matthew 18:6), causing the miscreant to be drowned. Its present figurative use was first recorded in a history of the Quakers (c. 1720).