UP Police Constable · Bite-size lessons

Muhavare (मुहावरे)

About 6 min · General Hindi (सामान्य हिंदी) · English

Time worked out from the lesson's 399 words at 150 words a minute, plus a minute for each question.

Muhavare (idioms) are fixed phrases in Hindi that convey meanings beyond the literal interpretation of their individual words. These colorful expressions are deeply rooted in Indian culture, daily life, and traditional wisdom. For the UP Police Constable exam, muhavare appear in multiple question types: you may be asked to identify the correct idiom matching a given situation, choose the contextual meaning of an idiom, complete sentences with appropriate idioms, or find the antonym/synonym of an idiomatic expression.

Key ideas

• Idioms are frozen expressions: The exact wording matters. "आँखों का तारा" (pupil of the eye) means beloved, but you cannot change it to "नेत्रों का तारा" in the idiom, even though both mean eyes in Hindi.
• Figurative vs. literal meaning: Every idiom has a surface (literal) meaning and a deeper (figurative) meaning. Exam questions test whether you understand the figurative sense used in real communication.
• Body-part idioms dominate: A large category involves body parts — हाथ (hand), आँख (eye), मुँह (mouth), कान (ear), सिर (head) — reflecting how physical gestures became linguistic metaphors.
• Cultural context matters: Many idioms derive from village life, farming, animals, and traditional occupations. Understanding these origins helps retention — "खेत रहना" (to remain in the field) means to die because fields were battlegrounds.
• One idiom, multiple contexts: Some idioms like "पत्थर की लकीर" (etched in stone) can mean both permanence and unchangeability depending on sentence context. Practice identifying context from surrounding words.

Quick reference

• आँखों में धूल झोंकना = deceive; आँखों का तारा = beloved; आँख दिखाना = threaten
• हाथ धोना = give up hope; हाथ मलना = regret; हाथ साफ करना = steal
• नौ दो ग्यारह होना = escape quickly; अंधे की लाठी = sole support
• खेत रहना = die in battle; पत्थर की लकीर = permanent/unchangeable
• सिर चढ़ना = become arrogant; छक्के छुड़ाना = defeat thoroughly

Check yourself: 3 questions

This lesson is cut from the topic's note, not rewritten. Fact-checked on 18 Oct 2026: an AI-assisted check of this note against cited sources; the errors it found were corrected that day. Some errors may remain. The questions are from Shishya's validated question bank.

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