71 Italian idioms, each filed under its main word, the way a dictionary would. Each one shows what it literally says and the English idiom for the same idea.
A
-
lit. ‘to me it’s Arabic’
EN It’s all Greek to me
-
lit. ‘to give yourself airs’
EN Blow your own trumpet
-
lit. ‘when donkeys fly’
EN When pigs fly
B
-
lit. ‘it’s executioner hot’
EN Hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement
C
-
lit. ‘to put it off to the Greek calends’
EN Kick the can down the road
-
Nascere con la camicia
lit. ‘to be born with a shirt on’
EN Hit the jackpot
-
lit. ‘lead the dog around the threshing floor’
EN Beat around the bush
-
lit. ‘like dog and cat’
EN Fight like cat and dog
-
lit. ‘it’s a dog cold’
EN Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
-
lit. ‘to have it up above your hair’
EN Had it up to here
-
lit. ‘have a lot of meat on the fire’
EN A lot on your plate
-
lit. ‘it’s raining by the basin’
EN It’s raining cats and dogs
-
lit. ‘they’re not my cabbages’
EN Not my circus, not my monkeys
-
lit. ‘be in seventh heaven’
EN Over the moon
-
lit. ‘the little cherry on the cake’
EN The icing on the cake
-
lit. ‘to be in trouble up to the neck’
EN In hot water
-
lit. ‘to be down on string’
EN Down in the dumps
-
lit. ‘pull the rope too hard’
Don't push it, that's going too far.
-
lit. ‘to laugh to the point of bursting your skin’
EN Laugh your head off
-
lit. ‘pull the hides’
EN Kick the bucket
D
-
A casa del diavolo
lit. ‘at the devil’s house’
EN The middle of nowhere
-
lit. ‘to cross the fingers’
EN Keep your fingers crossed
E
-
Fare di tutta l’erba un fascio
lit. ‘to make one bundle out of all the grass’
EN Compare apples and oranges
F
-
Avere le farfalle nello stomaco
lit. ‘have butterflies in the stomach’
EN Butterflies in your stomach
-
Non me ne importa un fico secco
lit. ‘I don’t care a dried fig’
EN I couldn’t care less
G
-
lit. ‘to go to bed with the hens’
EN Hit the sack
-
Non dire gatto se non ce l’hai nel sacco
lit. ‘don’t say cat until it’s in the sack’
EN Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
-
lit. ‘sleep like a dormouse’
EN Sleep like a log
-
lit. ‘a game for kids’
EN A piece of cake
-
lit. ‘take for a spin’
EN Pull someone’s leg
-
lit. ‘like two drops of water’
EN Like two peas in a pod
-
Mentire per la gola
lit. ‘to lie through the throat’
EN Lie through your teeth
I
-
lit. ‘to not have the palest idea’
EN Not have the foggiest
L
-
Far venire il latte alle ginocchia
lit. ‘make the milk come down to your knees’
EN Like watching paint dry
-
lit. ‘at a snail’s pace’
EN At a snail’s pace
-
lit. ‘to have a hunger of wolves’
EN I could eat a horse
M
-
lit. ‘to talk like a little machine’
EN Talk the hind legs off a donkey
-
lit. ‘to stay with your hands in your hands’
EN Not lift a finger
-
lit. ‘the morning has gold in its mouth’
EN The early bird catches the worm
-
lit. ‘make an elephant out of a fly’
EN Make a mountain out of a molehill
-
Saltare la mosca al naso
lit. ‘the fly jumps onto your nose’
EN Blow a fuse
N
-
lit. ‘the stone of the question’
EN That’s the crux of it
-
lit. ‘the night brings advice’
EN Sleep on it
-
lit. ‘to give out the numbers’
EN A cock-and-bull story
-
lit. ‘to have your head among the clouds’
EN Have your head in the clouds
O
-
lit. ‘to cost an eye of the head’
EN Cost an arm and a leg
-
lit. ‘to swim in gold’
EN Have money to burn
P
-
lit. ‘to throw someone a parcel’
EN Stand someone up
-
lit. ‘to jump from pole to leafy branch’
EN Go off on a tangent
-
lit. ‘for a crust of bread’
EN For peanuts
-
lit. ‘to be mush and meat’
EN Thick as thieves
-
lit. ‘to have the blinkers on’
Someone who only knows their own small world and thinks it's everything.
-
lit. ‘two steps away’
EN A stone’s throw
-
lit. ‘goose skin’
EN Goosebumps
-
lit. ‘to look for the hair in the egg’
EN Split hairs
-
lit. ‘like a fish out of water’
EN A fish out of water
-
Prendere due piccioni con una fava
lit. ‘catch two pigeons with one bean’
EN Kill two birds with one stone
-
Sbaglia anche il prete all’altare
lit. ‘even the priest makes mistakes at the altar’
EN Even Homer nods
-
lit. ‘to play the leading lady’
EN A prima donna
-
Avere il prosciutto sugli occhi
lit. ‘to have ham over your eyes’
To miss something that is obvious to everyone else.
-
lit. ‘to have someone in your fist’
EN Wrap someone around your little finger
R
-
lit. ‘not to get a spider out of the hole’
EN Rack your brains
-
lit. ‘be missing a few little wheels’
EN To have a screw loose
S
-
lit. ‘empty the sack’
EN Let the cat out of the bag
-
lit. ‘to be squeezed like sardines’
EN Packed like sardines
-
lit. ‘to play barrel-dumping’
EN Pass the buck
-
lit. ‘buy in a closed box’
EN Buy a pig in a poke
-
lit. ‘break the boxes’
EN Get on someone’s nerves
-
lit. ‘to throw the sponge’
EN Throw in the towel
-
lit. ‘to be left made of plaster’
EN You could have knocked me down with a feather
V
-
lit. ‘to be at the green’
EN Not have two pennies to rub together