Wipe the smile off someone’s face: When you do something, or something happens, to make someone sad.

With a heavy hand: To do something in a very controlled manner.

With flying colours: To pass or clear something with flying colours is to pass it will very good marks or grades.

With friends like that, who needs enemies?: This idiom is used in situations when someone close to you or a friend has done something to hurt and harm you, so a friend has done what one expects from an enemy.

Wither on the vine: This refers to something that gets slowly destroyed due to neglegence or because no one did anything for it; when used for a person, it means he was ignored or neglected and so was wasted.

Within a whisker: To come within a whisker of doing something is to come very close to doing or getting something but you don’t get it in the end.

Woe betide you: It is used as a warning that someone’s bad behaviour will land them in trouble later on.

Woe is me: When someone says this it means they are distressed, sad and grieved.

Wolf in sheep’s clothing: Someone who is very dangerous but looks quite harmless and innocent.

Wood for the trees: If you can’t see the wood for the trees, it means that you are so busy looking at the details that you are not focusing on the real problem or issue.

Word of mouth: Oral and informal communication, passing of information from one person to another.

Word of the law: The plain and simple meaning of a law, interpreted in a very literal manner and which actually goes against the very ideas that the lawmakers wanted to implement.

Words fail me: To be speechless, unable to express what you feel or want to say.

Work like a charm: Something that is very effective, almost like a magic spell.

Work like a dog: To work very hard, with possibly little reward.

Work the system: To exploit a system to one’s advantage.

Work your fingers to the bone: To work very hard on something.

Work your socks off: To work very hard.

Work your tail off: To work very hard.

World at your feet: To be successful and popular.

World is your oyster: To get everything you want from life.

Worm information: To get worm information from someone is to persuade someone to tell you something they wanted to keep or hide from you.— Ahzam Ahmed