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

[Le Baron]

EDIT or perhaps that should be "drive with your tomb open"?

What you originally put is correct. To one's open tomb or grave.

[Khayyam]

Said by a host of the German podcast Weird Crimes: "mit dem Mittelfinger in der Tasche." With the middle finger in the pocket; with secret contempt. Maybe someone can tell me if this is an established German idiom? I googled the phrase and found no indication that it's commonly used. It's possible that the host was just using an expression of her own that she knew would be readily understandable.

[Le Baron]

There is a Turkish idiom: Bundan iyisi Şam’da kayısı. It means, absolutely literally, 'better than this is apricots in Damascus'. Or rather: the only thing better is apricots in Damascus' And the idiomatic meaning is: it doesn't get better than this.

Why Damascus? According to a blog I read there is an historical passage in a book by Amin Maalouf (him of Les Croisades vues par les Arabes) about a wildly delicious type of apricot with yellowy-white flesh, which however grows so slowly or small(?) that it wasn't cultivated for markets and only passed between friends as gifts. So it is mythical. Something never seen, but only known about by reputation.

Syria isn't a major producer of apricots, but Turkey is the number one producer. Nevertheless, they speak of Damascus.

[Khayyam]

Persian equivalent of cloud nine in English and cloud seven in German: ابر پاییزی, "autumn cloud." Of course I had to google "autumn cloud Iran," and I found this: https://www.saadatrent.com/english/arti ... orest-iran

[Sonjaconjota]

Not exactly an idiom, but through my interest in crime stories, I've recently learned that a jemmy / crowbar is called "piede di porco" = "pig's foot" in Italian and "koevoet" = "cow's foot" in Dutch.

[DaveAgain]

Not exactly an idiom, but through my interest in crime stories, I've recently learned that a jemmy / crowbar is called "piede di porco" = "pig's foot" in Italian and "koevoet" = "cow's foot" in Dutch.

French is "pied de biche" > "doe's foot".

[jeffers]

C'est pas de la quiche.

This is a phrase I've noticed Lorant Deutsche uses a lot in his YouTube series, A toute berzingue. Googling the phrase doesn't bring up many examples, so I assume it's not very common. In fact, googling the phrase without speech marks brings up a website explaining "C'est pas de la tarte", which has no mention of quiche on the page at all. This second phrase means "it's not easy", but I believe "C'est pas de la quiche" is subtly different, and from context it seems to mean "it's no small thing". Googling the phrase with speech marks actually brings up an article about a recent episode of his series, with the following quote which I think supports my thinking that it's not a common idiom, and also supports my translation:

« Ce cloître, c’est pas de la quiche… c’est sûrement l’un des plus beaux de France »

Source: https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/lannion-22300/en-18-min-lorant-deutsch-raconte-lhistoire-de-lannion-dans-son-emission-a-toute-berzingue-3ab3ef5e-6816-11ee-8a72-42dbd1a75b19

[DaveAgain]

C'est pas de la quiche.

This is a phrase I've noticed Lorant Deutsche uses a lot in his YouTube series, A toute berzingue. Googling the phrase doesn't bring up many examples, so I assume it's not very common. In fact, googling the phrase without speech marks brings up a website explaining "C'est pas de la tarte", which has no mention of quiche on the page at all. This second phrase means "it's not easy", but I believe "C'est pas de la quiche" is subtly different, and from context it seems to mean "it's no small thing". Googling the phrase with speech marks actually brings up an article about a recent episode of his series, with the following quote which I think supports my thinking that it's not a common idiom, and also supports my translation:

« Ce cloître, c’est pas de la quiche… c’est sûrement l’un des plus beaux de France »

Source: https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/lannion-22300/en-18-min-lorant-deutsch-raconte-lhistoire-de-lannion-dans-son-emission-a-toute-berzingue-3ab3ef5e-6816-11ee-8a72-42dbd1a75b19

Looking up quiche, you get two definitions, both of which could work with your phrase:

Définition de quiche ​​​
nom féminin
1. Tarte salée garnie d'une préparation à base de crème, d'œufs et de lard. Quiche lorraine.
Préparation analogue. Quiche aux poireaux, au saumon.

2.familier Personne sotte ou nulle. C'est une quiche en mathématiques.

The second definition might make "c'est pas de la quiche" > it's not "sotte ou nulle"

[DaveAgain]

C'est une autre paire de manches > that's a different pair of sleeves > that's something completely different (and more difficult?)

https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/f ... 4#locution

https://www.expressio.fr/expressions/un ... de-manches

[Khayyam]

Persian: instead of your eyes being glued to whatever's got you fascinated, they're stitched to it. Ow.

(And the Persians probably hear our version and say, "Glue? Gross.")