Идиомы о кошках на английском языке
has the cat got your tongue? – (досл.: кошки язык забрали?) язык проглотили? Пример:
1. What's the matter? Has the cat got your tongue?
2. A brief silence ensued and the prince continued to gaze at her, which only persuaded Christine to then ask, "Has the cat got your tongue?"
to let the cat out of the bag – (досл.: выпустить кота из мешка) проговориться, проболтаться, нечаянно выболтать секретПримеры:
1. Now that Viola had let the cat out of the bag, she had no option but to confess.
2. Gavin Anderson apologises to those in the know for letting the cat out of the bag about this secret haven.
like herding cats – (досл.: все равно, что пасти котов) о чем-то очень сложном, почти невозможном; обычно относится к организации группы людей Примеры:
1. Getting the British people to panic is like herding cats.
2. Viewed from the front bench, discipline is said to be like herding cats.
it is raining cats and dogs – дождь льет как из ведраПримеры:
1. It was raining cats and dogs, and my bike had died on me.
2. The first barricaded suspect situation I attended was, as I recall, on a dark and stormy night, in fact it was raining cats and dogs.
Curiosity killed the cat – (досл.: Любопытство погубило кота.) Много будешь знать, скоро состаришься. Любопытной Варваре нос оторвали.Примеры:
1. Defending, he said: ‘This is a case where curiosity killed the cat.’
2. I won't reveal any more of the plot than that, but if there's a moral to this story, it's that old truism that says that curiosity killed the cat.
the cat's pajamas – (досл.: пижама кота) амер., сл., что надо, первый сорт Примеры:
1. This car is the cat’s pajamas.
2. Ben is cute and cuddly and his book is the cat's pajamas.
conceited as a barber's cat – (досл.: тщеславный как кот парикмахера) разг. очень тщеславный Примеры:
Ever since he won that award, he's been as conceited as a barber's cat.
grin like a Cheshire cat – (досл.: ухмыляться как чеширский кот) улыбаться во весь рот, ухмылятьсяПримеры:
1. Is he trying not to smile but inside grinning like a Cheshire cat?
2. Connor was grinning like a Cheshire cat when I'd finished.
copycat – подражатель, обезьяна (о человеке); подделка (особенно высококачественного изделия)Примеры:
1. All writers are copycats.
2. Your return is simply going to be dampened by other market copycats with the same idea.
fat cat – (досл.: жирный кот) богач, денежный мешок, туз; капиталист, воротила, финансирующий политическую кампанию Пример:
If the move lines the pockets of a few fat-cat directors, then that is probably because their remuneration is linked to the profits of the company.
cat burglar – вор-верхолаз, вор-форточник (забирается в здания по стенам, через верхние этажи, крышу или окна)Примеры:
1. A high-tech cat burglar is invading the apartments of young women.
2. An attempted robbery by a female cat burglar was thwarted when she was trapped by a resident, the Central Local Court heard recently.
scaredy-cat – трусишка Примеры:
1. We contemptuously called them scaredy-cats.
2. This is the sound that once had scaredy-cats such as me running for cover the length and breadth of the nation.
clowder of cats – группа кошек Пример:
A gathering of elves is like unto a clowder of cats.
hellcat – ведьма, мегера, сварливая женщинаПримеры:
1. She's like that, the hellcat.
2. She's obviously a hellcat but she's also a smart, funny and talented person.
catty remarks – саркастические замечания; резкие, язвительные комментарииПример:
1. How do you respond to a catty remark?
2. She, of course, never makes "catty" remarks.
dead cat bounce – (досл.: скачок / судороги мертвого кота) бирж. небольшое, кратковременное восстановление цен на падающие акцииПример:
A "dead cat bounce" price pattern may be used as a part of the technical analysis method of stock trading.
cat's paw – (досл.: кошачья лапка) марионетка, орудие в чьих-л. руках
(в басне Лафонтена обезьяна заставляет кота доставать из огня жареные каштаны; кот обжигает себе лапы, а каштаны съедает обезьяна)Пример:
We now have many senators who are mere cat's paws for the special interests.
enough to make a cat laugh – (досл.: может рассмешить даже кота) и мертвого может рассмешить, очень смешноПример:
Her acting way is enough to make a cat laugh.
like a cat on a hot tin roof – (досл.: как кот на раскаленной крыше) как на угольях, как на иголкахПримеры:
1. The jury has been out since Wednesday, so he has been like a cat on a hot tin roof here.
2. I am like a cat on a hot tin roof, walking around the house in the early hours of the morning, struggling to type because my hands are shaking in agony.
hepcat – стиляга, пижон, продвинутый тип; всезнайка; человек, который всегда в курсе всего; поклонник джаза или свингаПример:
The ‘Thin Man’ series updates the story to the Fifties and recasts Nick and Nora as wealthy hepcats.
not room to swing a cat – повернуться негде (об очень тесной или заполненной людьми комнате)Примеры:
1. You don't need to have been inside a dog trap yourself to understand that there isn't room to swing a cat in there.
2. We have a splendid cabin and there's plenty of room – but in most places there isn't room to swing a cat.
A cat may look at a king – посл. (досл.: Кошка может смотреть на короля.) В невысоком социальном положении есть свои
преимущества. Примеры:
1. Still, as they say – appropriately for the visual media – a cat may look at a king.
2. The cat is pleasantly impertinent to the king and Alice notes that a cat may look at a king, so he isn't being uncivil.