The article presents the results of the study of phraseological meaning, in particular the relation between cognitive (denotative-significative) and connotative components, as well as the completeness of the latter. The suitability of distinguishing a special, distinct from the lexical, meaning in idioms, which has long been one of the central problems of linguistic studies, tells them from words, variables phrases and sentences. Based on the achievements of modern linguistics, which postulate the “block organization” of semantics of linguistic units, the author combines denotation and phraseological meaning in one macrocomponent – cognitive, or denotative-significative, which will cover the formal and semantic parts of the meaning. Concerning the connotative component, in the semantics of idioms, it merges with the subject-logical information, since the process of nomination and perception of the reality with these units has an emotional and intellectual nature. In the structure of the connotative component of idioms, the author distinguishes between four interrelated and mutually dependent components: emotional, expressive, appraisal, and cultural. Due to this structure, the idioms appear as polylexical nominative-characterizing signs, the internal form of which retains the collective experience of sensory perception of objects of reality with varying degrees of expressiveness, a system of ideological positions, aesthetic assessments, norms of speech and extra-language behavior of a language team.