50 idioms in Italian

Into the mouth of the wolf → Good luck. It is the standard way to wish someone luck in Italy, before an exam, an interview or a performance.

In English: Break a leg — and, like "break a leg", you never answer with "thank you"

To catch two pigeons with one broad bean → To solve two things at once with a single effort. Used when the same trip, meeting or favor serves two purposes.

In English: To kill two birds with one stone

To have a hunger of wolves → To be seriously hungry. This is what you say walking through the door starving, or sitting down after hours without food.

In English: To be so hungry you could eat a horse

To be a cat to skin → To be an awkward, laborious problem nobody wants to take on. Said of a task or situation that has landed in your lap.

In English: A thankless task — or, closer to the tone, a real headache

Keep living, horse, while the grass grows → Said ironically about something that will take so long there is no point counting on it. The standard reply to a promise nobody believes.

In English: Don't hold your breath

To walk the dog around the threshing floor → To stall, to go round and round without getting to the point. Used for someone dodging an answer to avoid deciding anything.

In English: To beat around the bush

To catch a crab → To make a clumsy mistake, to get it completely wrong. Said of someone who blamed the wrong person or drew a bad conclusion.

In English: To bark up the wrong tree — or to get the wrong end of the stick

Not every doughnut comes out with a hole → Not everything works out as planned. The consoling line after an attempt that did not go the way you hoped.

In English: You win some, you lose some

To fall like cheese onto macaroni → To arrive at exactly the right moment, to be precisely what was missing. Used when help, news or an opportunity turns up perfectly timed.

In English: Just what the doctor ordered

To be as good as bread → To be a big-hearted person, incapable of hurting anyone. Said above all of simple, generous people.

In English: To have a heart of gold

To give back bread for focaccia → To pay someone back in equal measure, almost always to get even for something unpleasant.

In English: To give someone a taste of their own medicine

Everything makes broth → Everything helps, nothing is to be sniffed at. Said when any contribution, however small, gets you closer to the goal.

In English: Every little bit helps

What a pizza! → How boring, what a bore. The standard complaint about anything long and monotonous: a slow movie, an endless meeting, a long line.

In English: What a drag!

To save the goat and the cabbages → To resolve a deadlock without either side losing out. Used when someone finds the way through that keeps everyone happy.

In English: To keep everyone happy — English has no single idiom for a solution where nobody loses

To cost an eye out of your head → To be extremely expensive. Used for anything whose price feels outrageous, from rent to dinner.

In English: To cost an arm and a leg

To have no hairs on your tongue → To speak bluntly, to say what you think even when it stings. Describes someone direct, sometimes too much so.

In English: Not to mince your words

To have your head among the clouds → To be distracted, thinking about something else. Said of someone not paying attention to what is going on around them.

In English: To have your head in the clouds

To make merchant's ears → To pretend you did not hear, to ignore a request or a criticism on purpose. Used for someone playing deaf to avoid answering.

In English: To turn a deaf ear

To be left with a dry mouth → To come away with nothing, to miss out on what you were expecting. Used when someone loses their turn, the prize or the opportunity.

In English: To be left empty-handed — or left high and dry

To shove your nose into other people's business → To meddle in someone else's life, to want to know what is none of your concern. Usually said as a complaint about a busybody.

In English: To poke your nose into other people's business

It rains on the wet → Good luck, or bad luck, always piles up on whoever already has it. It works for the rich person who wins again just as much as for the person already down who takes another hit.

In English: When it rains, it pours — but note that English almost always uses it for bad news, while the Italian cuts both ways

It doesn't rain on it → There is not the slightest doubt about it. Used to close an assertion, marking the point as beyond discussion.

In English: No two ways about it

To make a dog cold → To be unbearably cold. The most common way to complain about winter in everyday conversation.

In English: To be freezing cold — or, stronger, it's brutal out there

To have a crooked moon → To be in a bad mood for no clear reason. Said of someone who woke up irritable and snaps at everyone.

In English: To get up on the wrong side of the bed

I don't see the hour → To be impatient for something to happen. The standard way to say you can hardly wait for a trip, a meeting or some news.

In English: I can't wait

Every death of a pope → Very rarely, hardly ever. Used for something that only happens after very long stretches of time.

In English: Once in a blue moon

To take a step longer than your leg → To take on more than you can handle, to spend or promise beyond your means. The classic warning against ambition with nothing under it.

In English: To bite off more than you can chew

To throw money out of the window → To waste money on useless things. Used to criticise a purchase or an investment that makes no sense at all.

In English: To throw money down the drain

To do somersaults → To make an enormous effort, to stretch yourself to cover everything. Said of someone juggling work, bills and family at the limit.

In English: To bend over backwards

The game isn't worth the candle → The result does not justify the effort or the cost. Said when something takes far more work than the benefit warrants.

In English: The game isn't worth the candle — English has the very same idiom, borrowed from French

To work like a mule → To work very hard, at a heavy pace and without rest. Used above all to complain about your own workload.

In English: To work like a dog — or to work your fingers to the bone

To go up in smoke → To come to nothing, to fall apart completely. Used for plans, savings or projects that collapse for good.

In English: To go up in smoke — the same image, word for word

To lose the stirrups → To lose your patience and blow up. Used when someone snaps after putting up with too much.

In English: To fly off the handle

To be in the seventh heaven → To be overjoyed, walking on air. Said of someone who has just had wonderful news or seen a dream come true.

In English: To be on cloud nine — note the number changes: seven in Italian, nine in English

To have a devil for each hair → To be furious, angry at everything and everyone. Said of someone whose nerves are raw and who is best left alone.

In English: To be hopping mad — or like a bear with a sore head

To have a tail of straw → To react defensively because you have something to hide. Said of someone who takes offence far too quickly and gives themselves away doing it.

In English: To protest too much — the giveaway of a guilty conscience

To fall from the clouds → To be completely taken aback by some news — or to pretend you knew nothing about it. Only the context tells you which.

In English: You could have knocked me over with a feather

To plant in the ace → To drop someone suddenly, with no warning. Used for anyone who vanishes from a commitment, a project or a relationship overnight.

In English: To leave someone in the lurch

To touch iron → To make the superstitious gesture that wards off bad luck. It is what Italians do when someone mentions illness, accidents or misfortune.

In English: To knock on wood — but note Italians reach for iron, not wood

Water in your mouth! → Don't tell anyone, it's a secret. Careful: it has nothing to do with mouth-watering food — it is a request for silence.

In English: Mum's the word! — or keep it under your hat

To do the small hours → To stay up until the early morning. The "small hours" are one, two, three o'clock — the low numbers on the clock.

In English: To stay up into the small hours — English uses the very same phrase for those hours

To look for the hair in the egg → To be far too demanding, to find fault with everything. Used for someone hunting for a problem where there is none.

In English: To split hairs — English lands on the same hair, from the other direction

He who sleeps doesn't catch fish → If you don't move, you get nothing. The proverb aimed at anyone waiting for things to fall into their lap.

In English: The early bird catches the worm

To play the fake fool → To pretend you did not understand, to duck an obligation or an awkward question. Used for someone being deliberately obtuse.

In English: To play dumb

To be at the green → To be completely out of money. Careful: in Italian green is the color of having nothing, the opposite of the English association of green with cash.

In English: To be broke — and note English money idioms run the other way: to be in the red is to be in debt, while green means money

To spend a night in white → Not to sleep at all. Used for insomnia caused by worry, pain, noise or work.

In English: Not to sleep a wink

To be the black sheep → To be the one who stands out from the group, almost always within a family. Used half seriously, half as a joke.

In English: To be the black sheep — the same animal, the same color

In four and four eight → In an instant, extremely fast. Used for something sorted or done in next to no time.

In English: In no time flat — or in the blink of an eye

To have a blue fright → To be terrified of something. Very informal, and heard mostly among friends or when talking to children.

In English: To be scared stiff

To work in black → To work with no contract and no registration, outside the system. The Italian equivalent of being paid cash in hand with no protections.

In English: To work off the books — or under the table