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Insightful Idioms
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IDIOMS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
An idiom is a “phrase or an expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. Categorized as formulaic language, an idiom's figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning. There are thousands of idioms, occurring frequently in all languages. It is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language.

Idiom: Late 16th century: from French idiome, or via late Latin from Greek idiōma meaning ‘private property’, from idiousthai meaning ‘make one's own’, from idios ‘meaning ‘own, private’.

ARABIC
Break a fast with an onion: To get less than what you were expecting.
  • The sky doesn’t throw chicks: Like the English idiom “money doesn’t grow on trees.”

ARMENIAN
  • Stop ironing my head!: Stop annoying me.

BRITISH
  • Best thing since sliced bread: A good idea or innovation.
  • Bob’s your uncle! A set of simple instructions to indicate that a task is easy and will be successful.
  • Cheap as chips: Something inexpensive.
  • Good wine needs no bush: Quality does not need to be advertised.
  • Punching above you weight: Taking on a task that is beyond your capability.
  • Take the biscuit: To be the most silly thing in a series of things.
  • To go spare: Very angry and acting a little crazy,
  • To tiptoe on broken glass: A very sensitive person.

CHINESE
  • Emit smoke from seven orifices: Extremely angry.
  • Inflate a cow: Brag
  • Nine cows one hare: Like the English idiom “a drop in the bucket.”

COLOMBIAN
  • Swallowed like a postman’s sock: To fall in love.

DANISH
  • To have a stick in your ear: To listen.

DUTCH
  • Have hair on your teeth: To be self-assertive.

ENGLISH
  • A little bird told me: When you have information but don’t want to disclose who told you.
  • A penny for your thoughts: When someone asks you what you think or how you feel.
  • Bigger fish to fry: When you have better and more interesting things to do.
  • Go bonkers: Used to describe irritation or annoyance, excitement or enthusiasm.
  • I beg to differ: When someone politely disagrees with someone.
  • Keep nose to the grindstone: When someone is working hard and is focused on a task.
  • Knock your socks off: When something is extremely exciting or outstanding.
  • Like a dog with two tails: When someone is really happy.
  • Proud as a peacock: When someone is excessively self centered proud or boastful of themselves.
  • The gift of the gab: Someone’s ability to speak clearly and confidently in a convincing manner.
  • To be in good books: To be friendly and nice with someone.

FARSI
  • If he had a hundred knives none would have a handle: There is only talk but no action.

FINNISH
  • To let a frog out of your mouth: To say the wrong thing.
  • To walk like a cat around hot porridge: Like the English idiom “don’t beat around the bush.”

FRENCH
  • Combing the giraffe: Like the English idiom “flogging a dead horse.”
  • Live like a maggot in bacon: Live luxuriously.
  • To cost the eyes in your head. Expensive.
  • To have the midday demon: A midlife crisis.
  • When chickens have teeth: When something is never going to happen.

GERMAN
  • A cat’s jump: A short distance.
  • Don’t praise the day before evening: Don’t count on anything too soon.
  • I think my pig is whistling: Blow me down.
  • Tie a bear to someone: To fool somebody.

HINDI
  • Fallen from the sky, stuck on a date palm: Like the English idiom “out of the frying pan and into the fire.”

ICELANDIC
  • The raisin at the end of a hot dog: An unexpected surprise at the end of something.

ITALIAN
  • A dog in church: An unwanted guest.
  • Go to bed with chickens: Go to bed early.
  • Into the mouth of a wolf: Good luck.
  • Not all doughnuts come with a hole: Things don’t always go as well as you would like.

JAPANESE
  • Even monkeys fall from trees: Everyone makes mistakes.
  • If you don’t enter the tiger’s den you won’t catch its cub: If you don’t try you don’t receive.
  • My cheeks are falling off: I think this food is delicious.
  • To have a wide face: To have many friends.

NORWEGIAN
  • Swallow some camels: To give in.

POLISH
  • Mustard after lunch: Meaning it’s too late to do something because it’s already happened.
  • Not my circus, not my monkeys: Not my problem.

PORTUGUESE
  • Monkeys bite me!: To be surprised or intrigued.
  • To feed the donkey sponge cake. To give someone special treatment when they don’t need it.

RUSSIAN
  • Hang noodles on someone’s ears: To fool or BS someone.
  • To ride as a hare: To ride without a ticket.

SLOVENIAN
  • 300 hairy bears: Wow or holy moly!

SPANISH
  • A cat in gloves catches no mice. Like the English idiom “nice guys finish last”.
  • To give someone pumpkins. To reject someone.
  • To live on a cloud made of farts: To be out of touch with reality.
  • When frogs grow hair: Like the English idiom “when pigs fly.”

SWEDISH
  • To slide in on a prawn sandwich: To have an easy life.

THAI
  • Take ears to the field, take eyes to the farm: Don’t pay any attention.
  • The hen sees the snake’s feet and the snake sees the hen’s boobs. It means two people know each other’s secrets.

YIDDISH
  • Tasty is the fish from someone else’s table: Somebody else has it better.
This site is a part of
A SERIES OF BEAUTIFUL WORDS BY KAI
The Collection Includes:
Defining the Brain: Website | Downloads (science)
A Beautiful Word: Website | Downloads (rare/obscure)
The Logophile Lexicon: Website | Book (literary)
Defining New Ideas: Website | Book (creativity)

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