Meaning & use
creative juices
Last updated
UK/kriˈeɪtɪv ˈdʒuːsɪz/
US/kriˈeɪtɪv ˈdʒuːsɪz/
Meaning
nounpluralfigurative
Your energy and ability to think up new ideas and make original things, pictured as a liquid that can flow or dry up.
Grammar: Always plural and mostly used with flow or flowing: get the creative juices flowing.
Patterns
- get your creative juices flowing
- the creative juices are flowing
- your creative juices run dry
A short walk usually gets my creative juices flowing.
The team brainstormed for an hour to get their creative juices going.
After weeks of deadlines, her creative juices had run dry.
Common combinations
- get the creative juices flowing
- Coffee and loud music get my creative juices flowing.
- creative juices are flowing
- Once the creative juices are flowing, the words come easily.
- stir your creative juices
- A blank canvas can stir your creative juices.
- creative juices run dry
- His creative juices ran dry halfway through the novel.
Synonyms and how they differ
- inspiration
- Inspiration is a standard term for the spark of an idea, while creative juices is a playful image for general creative energy.
- imagination
- Imagination names the mental ability itself, but creative juices suggests a supply that can be switched on or run out.
- creativity
- Creativity is the neutral, formal word and does not carry the informal liquid image.
Opposites
writer's block
Word family
- create verb
- to make something new
- creative adjective
- able to produce original ideas
- creativity noun
- the ability to produce original ideas
- creator noun
- a person who makes something
Practice
I always take a long walk first to get my creative ____ flowing.
Choose one answer.
The fixed idiom is creative juices flowing. Other liquid words sound natural but are not part of the phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “creative juices”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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