I'm Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears and Other Intriguing Idioms From Around the World (14 page)

A NOT-SO-HONEST LIVING

• The gentleman on the roof beams:
  thief (Chinese)
  
• Shroud snatcher:
  shameless thief (Hindi)
  
• To hide between the fingers:
  to steal (Hindi)
  
• Not pure flour in the sack:
  crook (Swedish)
  
• One whose bow is drawn:
  dangerous criminal (Hindi)
  
• Steals the kohl [eyeliner] from the eye:
  thief (Arabic)
  
• To make long fingers:
  to steal (German)
  
• A hat burns on a thief:
  a guilty conscience (Russian and Yiddish)
  
• Word thief:
  plagiarist (Hindi)
  
• To connect one’s blood vessels:
  to conspire with (Japanese)
  

To crow
Spanish: to take advantage of financially

• A miller with hair on his teeth is honest:
  proverb (German)
  
• To suck juice:
  to benefit at the expense of others (Japanese)
  
• Criminal:
  intelligent, well-done (Spanish, Puerto Rico)
  
• To roll over while sleeping:
  to dupe (Japanese)
  

TO WORK HARD

• Sweat seven shirts:
  work hard (Italian)
  
• Too much meat on the fire:
  overly busy (Italian)
  
• Give callus:
  work hard (Spanish)
  
• Put a candle to it:
  put some effort in (Spanish, Nicaragua)
  
• Peel the garlic:
  work like a dog (Spanish, Chile)
  
• To a broken arm:
  pushed to the limit (Spanish, Latin America)
  
• At pure lung:
  working hard (Spanish, Latin America)
  
• With liver and brains spilled on the ground:
  to do one’s utmost (Chinese)
  
• Wasteful with one’s health:
  burn the candle at both ends (German)
  
• To have no time to die:
  to be overwhelmed by work (Hindi)
  
• Break a bone:
  make a special effort (Japanese)
  
• Make one’s own body into powder:
  worked to death (Japanese)
  
• No time for a seat to get warm:
  very busy (Japanese)
  
• Break the horns:
  work very hard (Spanish)
  
• Dance on one’s head:
  work hard (Spanish)
  
• To have moustaches:
  a man of energy (Spanish, Latin America)
  
• Get with one’s own hump:
  earn by one’s own sweat (Russian)
  

TO NOT WORK HARD

• To sell oil:
  to goof off, to loaf (Japanese)
  
• To not do a dry fig:
  to be idle (Italian)
  

To show your lamp to the sun
Hindi: to waste time, do something useless

• To make a worker’s monument:
  to be lazy (German)
  
• Air man:
  one with no work or income (Yiddish)
  
• A codfish:
  a lazy person (Spanish, Puerto Rico)
  
• To gulp down flies:
  to not work hard (French)
  
• To make blue:
  to take the day off (German)
  
• A fan
  *
  in one’s left hand:
  an easy life with no work (Japanese)
  
• By not wetting one’s hands:
  without any effort (Japanese)
  
• To count stars:
  to twiddle your thumbs (Russian)
  
• To break [one’s] chair:
  to be very idle (Hindi)
  

TO NOT WORK WELL OR NOT WORK ANYMORE

• To drown in a glass of water:
  incompetent (Spanish)
  
• To plough in the sea:
  to do something useless (Spanish, Mexico)
  
• To throw water into the sea:
  to be useless (Spanish)
  
• To be a piece of meat with eyes:
  to be useless (Spanish)
  
• A Buddhist priest for three days:
  a quitter (Japanese)
  
• To serve neither God nor the devil:
  to be useless (Spanish, Mexico)
  
• To be worth a mushroom:
  to be worthless (Spanish, Chile)
  
• To be worth potatoes:
  to be worthless (Spanish, Mexico)
  
• Not even to dress saints:
  worthless (Spanish)
  
• Poop on a stick:
  worthless (Yiddish)
  
• Thinner than water:
  worthless (Hindi)
  
• Ganges of dung:
  a useless person, complete fool (Hindi)
  
• He’s good only for a fowl sacrifice:
  useless (Yiddish)
  
• Like a deaf man at a wedding party:
  a useless person (Arabic)
  
• Big shoe:
  an incompetent person (Italian)
  
• To comb the giraffe:
  to waste effort (French)
  
• To break firewood:
  to waste effort (Russian)
  
• To sift dust:
  to waste effort (Hindi)
  
• Pedaling in yogurt:
  ineffective (French)
  
• To spread bean paste on something:
  to make a mess (Japanese)
  
• Too many saints ruin the temple:
  too many cooks spoil the broth (Hindi)
  
• The bath house soap bowl is missing:
  chaos (Arabic)
  
• Shoelace ironer:
  too much attention to detail (Russian)
  
• A pea counter:
  one overly concerned with details (German)
  
• A mouse milker:
  one overly concerned with details (German)
  
• Sewn with a hot needle:
  done carelessly (German)
  
• To show your lamp to the sun:
  to waste time, do something useless (Hindi)
  
• A poor dancer is impeded by his own balls:
  a bad workman blames his tools (Russian)
  
• For an unskilled dancer the courtyard is uneven:
  a bad workman blames his tools (Hindi)
  
• Painting little bars:
  unemployed (Spanish, Colombia)
  
• Reduced to a neck:
  to be fired (Japanese)
  
• To have to take a hat:
  forced to resign (German)
  
• Out to plant cabbage:
  retired, old (French)
  

TO INGRATIATE

• Foot licker:
  a sycophant (Italian)
  
• A sock sucker:
  a sycophant (Spanish, Peru)
  
• To lick someone’s heels:
  to behave in a servile manner toward someone (Russian)
  
• Climb on the dragon and get close to the phoenix:
  ingratiate oneself (Chinese)
  
• To grind sesame:
  to flatter (Japanese)
  
• To pat over the wool:
  to flatter, ingratiate (Russian)
  
• Under the sleeve:
  money under the table, a bribe (Japanese)
  
• A silver shoe:
  a bribe (Hindi)
  

THE BOSS, THE MAN, THE WOMAN

• Armchair:
  position of power (Italian)
  
• Mister sainted mother:
  the big boss (Italian)
  
• The big head:
  the boss (Italian)
  
• To cut the cake:
  to take control (Spanish, Chile)
  
• To wear the pants well placed:
  to impose authority (Spanish)
  
• To tighten one’s pants:
  to make one’s authority felt (Spanish, Costa Rica)
  
• To have the frying pan by the handle:
  to be in charge (Spanish)
  
• To use someone with one’s chin:
  to order someone around (Japanese)
  
• The rabbi’s wife:
  a pompous woman (Yiddish)
  
• A company director’s stomach:
  a paunch (Japanese)
  
• The eye of a typhoon:
  a leading figure (Japanese)
  
• A thick stick:
  an important person, boss (Spanish, Chile)
  
• A fat fish:
  a big shot, head honcho (Spanish)
  

POOR OR BROKE

• To be in the green:
  to be broke (Italian)
  
• Living by sheltering from the rain and dew:
  in poverty (Japanese)
  
• One’s mouth dries up:
  in poverty (Japanese)
  
• To lack a straw for a toothpick:
  not have a penny (Hindi)
  
• No tartar on the teeth:
  in poverty (Hindi)
  
• An ant milker:
  a miser (Arabic, Syrian)
  
• Cleaner than a frog’s armpit:
  flat broke (Spanish)
  
• To not have a single radish:
  flat broke (French)
  
• One who lives on watery lentils:
  a poor person (Hindi)
  
• Grass at a village site:
  a poor man, easily trampled on (Hindi)
  
• To drink a cup of broth:
  to go broke (French)
  
• One’s legs stick out:
  to exceed one’s income (Japanese)
  
• One’s pocket is lonely:
  short of money (Japanese)
  
• One’s pocket is cold:
  short of money (Japanese)
  
• To become naked:
  to go broke (Japanese)
  
• A wheel of fire:
  in financial straits (Japanese)
  
• To be duck:
  to be broke (Spanish, Peru)
  
• Iron rooster:
  stingy person (Chinese)
  
• Like a poor person’s funeral:
  quickly (Spanish, Colombia)
  

CHEAP OR STINGY

• Fine words don’t feed cats:
  talk is cheap (Italian)
  
• To have holes in your hands:
  to be cheap (Italian)
  
• To walk with one’s elbows:
  to be stingy (Spanish, Cuba)
  
• To crow:
  to take advantage of financially (Spanish, Argentina)
  
• Goose:
  a freeloader (Spanish, Colombia)
  
• Not eat an egg so as to not waste the shell:
  be miserly (Spanish, Mexico)
  

To walk with one’s elbows
Spanish: cheap, stingy

To live on a large foot
German: to live very well

• Not eat a banana so as to not throw out the peel:
  be miserly (Spanish, Mexico)
  
• Worth a mushroom:
  worthless (Spanish, Chile)
  
• Worth potatoes:
  worthless (Spanish, Mexico)
  
• For an apple and an egg:
  very cheaply (German)
  
• A cucumber:
  very cheaply (Hindi)
  
• To light one’s fingernail:
  to lead a frugal life (Japanese)
  
• To have a baby’s hand:
  to be very tight with money (Spanish, Chile)
  
• To be hard of the elbow:
  to be stingy (Spanish, Dominican Republic)
  
• Eat vegetables and fear no creditors, rather than eat duck and hide:
  proverb (Hebrew)
  
• The painful one:
  the check, bill (Spanish)
  
• So cheap that she even farts inward:
  extremely stingy (Finnish)
  
• So miserly that if a fly fell in his tea, he would fish it out and suck it dry before throwing it away:
  not an idiom, but a worthy inclusion, and all that in just two Hindi words! (Hindi)