About idioms:
Fixed phrases comes from ancient classics or works, historical stories and people's oral stories. It is a unique and long-used fixed phrases in ancient Chinese vocabulary. The meaning of idioms is incisive, often implied in literal meaning, rather than simply adding up the meanings of their components.
Its structure is tight, and it is generally impossible to change the word order, extract or increase or decrease its components at will. Its form is mostly four characters, and there are also some three characters and multi-characters, which are mostly composed of four characters. Simply put, idioms are words that are well known, can be quoted from classics, have clear sources and allusions, and are highly used.
Baidu encyclopedia-idioms