Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Exclamation when one considers an event to be extremely unlikely. Note: Sometimes extended to “Then I’ll eat a broom and the cleaning lady!” – “In that case, I’ll eat a broom and the cleaning lady!”
To tip one behind the tie.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To drink a shot. Origin: When you drink, it runs down the throat and therefore also behind the tied tie.
To be shod in a matter.
Photo by Foto-Rabe. Meaning: To be well informed about a matter. Origin: “Shoeing” refers to the adjustment of horseshoes by a farrier. Well-shod horses are stable.
Now we have the presents!
Photo by Yevhen Buzuk. Meaning: Usually a resigned comment about an unpleasant surprise or bad outcome that one person warned about but others ignored. Occasionally also used humorously or comically. Origin: The term “Bescherung” refers to the presents under the Christmas tree, which are sometimes unpleasant surprises, but nevertheless foreseeable.
To be over the mountain.
Photo by Almeida. Meaning: To have overcome the worst phase of something (for example an illness). Origin: Derived from the fact that climbing a hill to reach the top is more difficult than descending it.
The laboring mountain gives birth to a mouse.
Photo by Peter van Geest – AI.Meaning: Something that was previously announced with much fanfare turns out to be completely unspectacular. Origin: Adapted from Horace, De arte poetica, verse 139: “Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus”.
The farmer sacrifice.
Photo by Pierre Michel Pango. Meaning: To sacrifice something for a greater purpose. Origin: In chess, pawns (in German: jacks) are the weakest figures, sacrificed to protect higher-ranking figures or to open the opportunity for a positional advantage.
It’s about the emperor’s beard.
Photo by Rodrigo Pignatta – Karel de Grote. Meaning: The discussion is about something that is not relevant. Origin: Scholars are said to have had long discussions about whether Charlemagne wore a beard or not.
Don’t grow a (grey) beard!
Photo by 652234. Meaning: Don’t be sad! Do not be angry! Never mind! Origin: In ancient times, and in some cultures even today, shaving was stopped for a period of time as a sign of mourning.
To do someone a bear service.
Drawing by the trek.co. Meaning: To do someone a disservice; be a poor help and often achieve the opposite of what is intended. Origin: Probably based on an animal fable by the French author Jean de La Fontaine, in which a tamed bear killed its master because it wanted to ward off annoying flies.
To tie a bear to someone.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To pull the wool over someone’s eyes, to lie to someone, to deceive someone. Origin: The most likely derivation is from the Germanic root bar-, which meant to carry (still recognizable in the English word burden or the German Bürde). Later, people no longer knew that bar meant burden, and etymologically reinterpreted it as bear, which did not, however, provide a clear meaning. As a result, popular wisdom came up with a series of stories and anecdotes to explain the phrase. One of them is about hunters who stop at an inn but cannot pay for the food and drink they have consumed. They finally convince the innkeeper to accept a bear as collateral. Only after the hunters have already fled does the innkeeper realize he has made a bad trade and wonders what he is supposed to do with a live bear. Another source explains the phrase by saying that it is not possible to tie a bear to someone’s back without them noticing, especially because the saying is often used for a big and quite obvious lie.
That’s where the bear is tap-dancing!
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: That’s the place where a lot is going on, that’s a hot party.
Through the bench.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Complete, whole. Origin: According to medieval custom, people sitting on a bench were served one by one during meals. So when the bank was served, everyone had gotten their share of the food.
To move something to the long bench.
Photo by Rolf Dobberstein. Meaning: To seriously delay, postpone, a matter. Origin: Presumably from court language, referring to the length of trials. Bench here is probably similar to the filing cabinet later used to store court documents.
To fight with hard bandages.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Fighting with harsh tactics, ruthless and hard fighting. Origin: Before the days of boxing gloves or the Queensberry Rules, boxers fought with bandages on their fists. Protection was only secondary. The tighter the bandage was wrapped, the harder the blow came.
To keep the ball flat.
Photo by Phillip Kofler. Meaning: Hold back, avoid risk, avoid attracting attention.
To understand nothing but train station.
Photo by Alan Kraus – Bahnhof Berlin. Meaning: Not understanding or wanting to understand anything. Origin: The expression has its origins in World War I, when soldiers, tired from years of trench warfare, just wanted to hear the word “train station,” which for them was synonymous with a journey home.
To behave like the axe in the forest.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Behaving like a bull in the china shop; consistently exhibit destructive behavior; to keep bullying the people around you.
Having to finish the bath.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Having to pay the price; having to take the blame; to be punished excessively or unjustly for something Origin: Until modern times, it was not uncommon for several people to have to use the same bath water one after the other. The last person in line did not only get the coldest and dirtiest bath water, but also had to clean the tub and put it back in its place.
To have the ass card.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To suffer a decisive disadvantage. Origin: To prevent accidental red card drawing, which would result in a player being sent off, when showing a cautionary yellow card, usually from the shirt pocket, sports referees usually keep the red card in their back pocket .
With alas and noise.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Barely, barely, scarcely, with difficulty.
To feed someone off with something.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To reject someone. Origin: The idiom is said to come from the regional custom of signaling to a suitor that his wish has been rejected by serving an inferior meal.
To be able to take some make-up off.
Photo by mooiverouderen. Meaning: Having to give up a hopeful project.
To copper something off.
Photo by youtube. Meaning: To imitate, copy, plagiarize something. Origin: Copper engraving was the leading technique for reproducing images in the early modern period.
A wave with the fence post.
Photo by fotocommunity. Meaning: An extremely clear hint. Origin: A fence post is so large that waving with it cannot be missed.
The apple of strife.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: The point of contention, the subject of a dispute. the point of contention. Origin: According to Greek mythology, the Trojan War was caused by a dispute between the goddesses Hera, Aphrodite and Athena over which of them was the most beautiful. Paris should hand the winner an apple.
To palpate someone’s tooth.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To examine someone, to check someone’s knowledge and skills quickly and thoroughly. Origin: Derived from the horse trade; The teeth of a horse show how old it is, or at least that it is not older than about seven years old, by which time the cavity in the crown of the molars disappears, then the horse becomes decrepit.
No prong will fall out of your crown!
Photo by talpeanu. Meaning: Don’t make a fuss! Come on! Origin: A damaged crown jeopardizes the wearer’s reputation.
To feign an X for a U to someone.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI . Meaning: Trying to deceive someone. Origin: The Roman numeral V (5, which also stood for U in Latin) could easily be manipulated into an X (10) by spreading out the two lines.
To send someone to the desert.
Image by Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To dismiss or remove someone from office in a dishonorable manner. Origin: Goes back to the Bible (Lev 16:1 ff. EU), according to which the sins of the people of Israel were transferred by the laying on of hands on a scapegoat, which was then driven into the desert, intended for Azazel.
It’s about the sausage.
Photo by Karl Allen Lugmayer. Meaning: Condition shortly before the end of an exciting competition that has not yet been decided. Origin: Sausages were valuable food products, so extracting them used to be a big problem.
To get into the wool with someone.
Foto door fotocommunity. Betekenis: Met iemand ruzie krijgen. Herkomst: Wol verwijst naar het haar op het hoofd waar de tegenstanders elkaar aan trekken.
To howl with the wolves.
Photo by phys.org. Meaning: To do something rather reprehensible for the sake of advantage or to avoid disadvantages. Origin: The idiom was already used by the Romans.
Having eaten the wisdom with spoons.
Photo by bildagentur.panthermedia. Meaning: Feeling clever, but basically being an idiot. Origin: Wisdom cannot be acquired through food.
To preach water and drink wine.
Photo by blueprints. Meaning: Telling others how to behave, but not sticking to it yourself.
To be not fit to hand someone the water.
Photo by geo.de. Origin: In the Middle Ages, when people still ate with their fingers, servants bowed low and gave guests water to wash their hands after eating. If this was already humiliating, how low in reputation someone was who was no longer even allowed to take on this task.
Other people also only cook with water.
Photo by archiv.report. Meaning: Other people don’t have magic bullets either. Other people won’t do any better either.
To be built close to the water.
Photo by vriendenplek. Meaning: Being emotional and crying easily.
To go into the trousers.
Photo by gezonderleven.nl. Meaning: To go wrong, to be a complete flop.
That doesn’t get into my bag!
Photo by deko-and-more-shop. Meaning: I do not tolerate or accept that! Origin: Presumably trade language in which the customer rejects certain goods.
To fall into the house with the door.
Photo by linkedin. Meaning: To get straight to the point in a rude manner. Origin: A reminder of the time when in many houses the outside door gave direct access to the living room. Anyone who walked in without knocking was straight to the point.
The little dot on the letter i is still missing.
Photo by pinterest. Meaning: A small detail is missing to make something complete. Origin: The letter i without the dot is not a letter i.
Trick 17.
Photo by 422737. Meaning: An immediate, but not necessarily obvious, solution to an unusual problem. Origin: Believed to be derived from an ancient card game in which 17 was the highest score.
To get on the funnel.
Photo by fotocommunity.de. Meaning: To find the solution to the problem after long efforts; to finally understand something. Origin: The saying probably goes back to the Nuremberg Funnel, a funny fictional device that was supposed to help people with a lack of intelligence.
To be a faithless tomato.
Photo by happycarb. Meaning: To be unreliable; not honoring agreements.
To have tomatoes on the eyes.
Photo by geo.de. Meaning: Not seeing the obvious.
To cut the tablecloth.
Photo by deutschlandfunkkultur. Meaning: to break off the friendship. Origin: In the Middle Ages, during a divorce, the tablecloth held by both partners was cut in half.
To decide something at the green table.
Johann Rudolf Huber – painting – Friedenskongress in Baden (1714). Meaning: To make a decision somewhat bureaucratically and without expertise, to make an armchair decision Origin: The phrase supposedly goes back to the Perpetual Diet of Regensburg, where there was a green table in the Elector’s Room in the Old Town Hall.To pull someone over the table.Photo by ovb-online. Meaning: To fool someone. Origin: Derived from the Bavarian popular sport of finger pulling, where not only strength but above all technique can make the difference.
To make oneself out of the dust.
Photo by Everaldo A. de Brito. Meaning: to run off, to hop off, to leave quickly without anyone noticing. Origin: A lot of dust was thrown up in the tumult of battle and it was easier for friends and foes to get to safety unnoticed.
To write something in someone’s register.
Photo by StartupStockPhotos. Meaning: To give someone a strong advice, to make someone take something to heart
To spin sailor’s yarn.
Photo by fotocommunity.de. Meaning: to spin a yarn; to tell fantastic, fictional or untrue stories. Origin: From the sailor’s language, where whimsical stories were told during the repair work on the reef.
He who sleeps in a silver bed has golden dreams.
Photo by nader.com
Snow of yesterday.
Photo by Alina Kebkal. Meaning: Outdated knowledge
Sich ins Schneckenhaus zurückziehen.
Foto von Spenden Welcome. Meinung: sich in sich selbst zurückziehen oder in räumliche Isolation begeben, z.B. aufgrund von Enttäuschung oder Demütigung, der Außenwelt (vorübergehend) nicht zugänglich zu sein oder sich davor zu schützen
To be off the roll.
Photo by Rob Duin. Origin: The term comes from cycling, where an exhausted motor-paced racer loses contact with the spacer roller of the motorcycle in front.
To look at the radishes from below.
Photo by naturfotografen-forum.de. Meaning: Be dead and in the grave.
To write oneself something behind one’s ears.
Photo by youtube.com. Meaning: To remember something important very well
To still be green behind the ears.
Photo by Engin Akyurt. Meaning: To be a greenhorn
To stand like the ox in front of the barn door.
Photo by geocaching.com. Meaning: To be dumbfounded, to be unable to react, to have no idea how to proceed
The choice between plague and cholera.
Photo by Pablo Garcia Saldaña
To have neither hand nor foot.
Photo by nrc.nl. Meaning: To be half-baked
Wash my fur but don’t make me wet!
Photo by fotocommunity.de. Meaning: The attitude of people who like the general idea (or pretend to like it) but balk at bearing the unpleasant consequences.
Ein Brett vor dem Kopf haben.
Foto von finanzinferno.de. Bedeutung: Schrullig sein
A louse ran over someone’s liver.
Photo by fotocommunity.de. Meaning: Someone is in a bad mood for no apparent reason.
Door Peter
Mensenmens, zoon, echtgenoot, vader, opa.
Spiritueel, echter niet religieus.
Ik hou van golf, wandelen, lezen en de natuur in veel opzichten.
Onderzoeker, nieuwsgierig, geen fan van de mainstream media (MSM).
