65 Japanese idioms, each filed under its main word in romanized form, the way a dictionary would. Each one shows what it literally says and the English idiom for the same idea.
A
B
-
baketsu o hikkurikaeshita yō na ame
lit. ‘rain like an upturned bucket’
EN It’s raining cats and dogs
C
-
chinpunkanpun
lit. ‘gibberish (a made-up sound, roughly “chin-pun-kan-pun”)’
EN It’s all Greek to me
D
F
G
-
画竜点睛
garyō tensei
lit. ‘painting a dragon, dotting in the eyes’
EN The icing on the cake
-
牛歩
gyūho
lit. ‘an ox’s walk’
EN At a snail’s pace
-
gyūjiru
lit. ‘to ox-ear (someone), from “to hold the ox’s ear”’
EN Wrap someone around your little finger
H
-
hana ni kakeru
lit. ‘to hang it on your nose’
EN Blow your own trumpet
-
happō fusagari
lit. ‘blocked in all eight directions’
EN In hot water
-
hara o kakaete warau
lit. ‘to laugh holding your belly’
EN Laugh your head off
-
hayaoki wa sanmon no toku
lit. ‘getting up early is worth three coins’
EN The early bird catches the worm
I
-
ichimon nashi
lit. ‘without a single mon coin’
EN Not have two pennies to rub together
-
iki o hikitoru
lit. ‘to take back your breath’
EN Kick the bucket
-
ippai kuwasu
lit. ‘to make someone eat a bowlful’
EN Pull someone’s leg
-
isseki nichō
lit. ‘one stone, two birds’
EN Kill two birds with one stone
J
-
jirai o fumu
lit. ‘step on a landmine’
EN Put your foot in it
-
jūbako no sumi o yōji de hojikuru
lit. ‘pick at the corners of the lunch box with a toothpick’
EN Split hairs
K
-
kanninbukuro no o ga kireru
lit. ‘the cord of the patience bag snaps’
EN Blow a fuse
-
kata o otosu
lit. ‘to drop one’s shoulders’
EN Down in the dumps
-
i no naka no kawazu
lit. ‘a frog in a well’
Someone who only knows their own small world and thinks it's everything.
-
doko fuku kaze
lit. ‘a wind blowing who knows where’
EN I couldn’t care less
-
ken'en no naka
lit. ‘the relationship of dog and monkey’
EN Fight like cat and dog
-
kentō mo tsukanai
lit. ‘can’t even get a bearing’
EN Not have the foggiest
-
ki ga tōku naru
lit. ‘one’s spirit gets far away’
EN Keel over
-
aita kuchi ga fusagaranai
lit. ‘the mouth that fell open won’t close’
EN You could have knocked me down with a feather
-
kuchi ga suberu
lit. ‘your mouth slips’
EN Let the cat out of the bag
-
kuchi kara saki ni umareru
lit. ‘to be born mouth first’
EN Talk the hind legs off a donkey
M
-
makka na uso
lit. ‘a bright red lie’
EN Lie through your teeth
-
お祭り騒ぎ
omatsuri sawagi
lit. ‘festival uproar’
There's a lively party or a lot going on somewhere.
-
me to hana no saki
lit. ‘the tip between eyes and nose’
EN A stone’s throw
-
mi o kiru yō na samusa
lit. ‘a cold like it cuts your body’
EN Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
-
mimi ni tako ga dekiru
lit. ‘calluses form on your ears’
EN Had it up to here
N
-
atama no neji ga hazurete iru
lit. ‘the screw in your head has come off’
EN To have a screw loose
-
karite kita neko
lit. ‘a cat that has been borrowed (and brought over)’
EN A fish out of water
-
neko no te mo karitai
lit. ‘I’d even borrow a cat’s paws’
EN A lot on your plate
-
nureginu o kiseru
lit. ‘to make someone wear wet clothes’
EN Pass the buck
O
-
お茶を濁す
ocha o nigosu
lit. ‘to make the tea cloudy’
EN Beat around the bush
-
onaka to senaka ga kuttsuku
lit. ‘your stomach and your back stick together’
EN I could eat a horse
-
oteage
lit. ‘hands up’
EN Throw in the towel
R
-
陸の孤島
riku no kotō
lit. ‘an isolated island on land’
EN The middle of nowhere
S
-
saru mo ki kara ochiru
lit. ‘even monkeys fall from trees’
EN Even Homer nods
-
shinkei o sakanade suru
lit. ‘stroke the nerves the wrong way’
EN Get on someone’s nerves
-
針小棒大
shinshō bōdai
lit. ‘needle-small, pole-big’
EN Make a mountain out of a molehill
-
uwa no sora
lit. ‘the sky up above’
EN Have your head in the clouds
-
tsuki to suppon
lit. ‘the moon and a soft-shelled turtle’
EN Compare apples and oranges
-
sushizume
lit. ‘packed like sushi in a box’
EN Packed like sardines
-
suzume no namida
lit. ‘a sparrow’s tears’
EN For peanuts
T
-
taigan no kaji
lit. ‘a fire on the opposite bank’
EN Not my circus, not my monkeys
-
taiyō ga nishi kara nobotte mo
lit. ‘even if the sun rises in the west’
EN When pigs fly
-
me no tama ga tobideru hodo takai
lit. ‘so expensive your eyeballs pop out’
EN Cost an arm and a leg
-
tana kara botamochi
lit. ‘a rice cake falling off the shelf’
EN Hit the jackpot
-
tanaage ni suru
lit. ‘to lift it up onto the shelf’
EN Kick the can down the road
-
toranu tanuki no kawazan'yō
lit. ‘counting the money for the pelts of raccoon dogs you haven’t caught’
EN Don’t count your chickens before they hatch
-
ten ni mo noboru kokochi
lit. ‘a feeling of rising up even to heaven’
EN Over the moon
-
toko ni tsuku
lit. ‘to take your place on the bedding’
EN Hit the sack
-
torihada
lit. ‘bird skin’
EN Goosebumps
U
-
udaru yō na atsusa
lit. ‘heat that makes you feel boiled’
EN Hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement
-
uma ga au
lit. ‘the horses match’
EN Thick as thieves
-
uri futatsu
lit. ‘two halves of a melon’
EN Like two peas in a pod
-
uso happyaku
lit. ‘eight hundred lies’
EN A cock-and-bull story