What term describes a fixed expression whose meaning is not literal, such as 'feeling under the weather'?

What term describes a fixed expression whose meaning is not literal, such as 'feeling under the weather'?

• A. Idioms
• B. Metaphor
• C. Proverb
• D. Collocation

Answer: (A)

Idioms are fixed expressions whose meaning isn’t literal, and “feeling under the weather” is a classic example because the phrase as a whole means feeling ill, not literally being beneath weather. This non-literal sense comes from common usage where the whole expression has a meaning you can’t guess just from the individual words. That sets idioms apart from metaphors, which are comparisons that may not be fixed phrases; proverbs, while they convey wisdom or advice, aren’t defined by a non-literal meaning in the same fixed-expression sense; and collocations are common word pairings with meanings that are typically literal and predictable from the words themselves.