/no ˈdaɾ un ˈpalo al ˈaɡwa/ lit. ‘not to give the water a single stroke (of the oar)’
Spanish idiom, colloquial. To be very lazy and avoid work.
Draft Not yet checked by a native Spanish speaker.
How do people use No dar un palo al agua
?
Colloquial, very common in Spain, and almost always a complaint about someone else: a coworker, a flatmate, a teenager. It only lives in the negative: “no da un palo al agua”, “lleva todo el día sin dar un palo al agua”. Say it about yourself and it sounds like a cheerful confession of a lazy weekend.
Also said no dar palo al agua, sin dar un palo al agua
No dar un palo al agua
in real sentences
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Es un holgazán, lleva todo el día sin dar un palo al agua.
He is a lazy man, spending the whole day without lifting a finger.
Tatoeba, sentence by gleOsp, translation by sharris123, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Es un auténtico caradura, siempre se está aprovechando de los esfuerzos de los demás mientras él no da un palo al agua.
He’s got some nerve. He’s always taking advantage of everyone else’s work while he never even lifts a finger.
Tatoeba, sentence by Shishir, translation by DJ_Saidez, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does No dar un palo al agua
come from?
English Wiktionary reads it literally as “not put an oar into the water”: “palo” is a stick, here the oar. The usual explanation is a rowing crew where one oarsman just sits there while the others pull. That fits the picture, but we found no source that dates the phrase or proves the rowing story.
Mistakes learners make with No dar un palo al agua
Using it in the positive. “Dio un palo al agua” doesn’t mean he worked hard; the phrase only exists with “no” or “sin”, like the English “not lift a finger”.
Other Spanish idioms like No dar un palo al agua
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?
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