What's a fun idiom that you've learned recently?

[Khayyam]

I'll start.

In English, we'd say, "The walls have ears."

In Persian, they say something that translates to, "Walls have mice and mice have ears."

[tommus]

Dutch: Nu komt de aap uit de mouw
English: Now comes the monkey out of the sleeve
Meaning: Now the truth comes out
English expression: Now the cat is out of the bag

[badger]

FR: il y a une couille dans le potage.
EN: something has gone wrong (lit: there's a b*llock in the soup)

[DaveAgain]

apporter de l'eau à son moulin

to bring water to one's mill > strengthen your position

https://www.expressio.fr/expressions/ap ... -quelqu-un

[golyplot]

The Japanese equivalent of "cats and dogs" (i.e natural enemies) is apparently "dogs and monkeys".

One Japanese idiom that has no common English equivalent is "three day monk", meaning someone who can't stick to anything for long.

[Aloyse]

FR: il y a une couille dans le potage.
EN: something has gone wrong (lit: there's a b*llock in the soup)

This is a corruption of the classic "il y a un cheveu dans la soupe".

[Querneus]

In English, cold/cool/calm as a cucumber

[Gaoling97]

jemandem ist eine Laus über die Leber gelaufen -- "a louse has walked over somebody's liver" -- to be in a bad mood/peeved

[tommus]

het loodje leggen = die

If I understand this Dutch expression correctly, it literally says "lay down the (little) lead". Lead as in the metal. I'd never seen it before today so it may not be used very much. It may have a relationship to monetary transactions. Here is a detailed explanation in Dutch of that idiom.

[DaveAgain]

"den löffel abgeben" > give up the spoon > die

https://www.redensarten-index.de/suche. ... rianten_ou