fixed expression with nonliteral meaning: a fixed, distinctive, and often colorful expression whose meaning cannot be understood from the combined meanings of its individual words, for example, “to have somebody in stitches” natural way of using a language: the way of using a particular language that comes naturally to its native speakers and involves both knowledge of its grammar and familiarity with its usage stylistic expression of person or group: the style of expression of a specific individual or group subidiomatic expressions act as facilitators of expression or linguistic shortcuts. These expressions are usually based on modifiers and may have co-occurring parts of speech. A subidiom's sense limited and is homologous to the sense of the modifier or the part with which it occurs