a blessing in disguise
Meaning: Something that seems bad at first but turns out well.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Missing that flight was a blessing in disguise; I met my wife at the airport.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A good thing dressed up as a misfortune. The phrase is recorded from the 18th century, in a hymn by James Hervey.
Equivalents in other languages
- Chinese: 塞翁失马 (Sài Wēng shī mǎ) — literally: The old frontiersman loses his horse
More idioms — Daily Life
- when in Rome, do as the Romans do — Follow local customs when visiting a place.
- cut your coat according to your cloth — Live within your means.
- a guilty conscience needs no accuser — Guilty people give themselves away.
- big deal — Said sarcastically to mean something is not important at all.
- play dumb — To pretend not to know or understand something.
- make short work of something — To deal with or finish something quickly.
More English idioms
- teach your grandmother to suck eggs — To give advice to someone who knows far more than you.
- beauty is in the eye of the beholder — What one person finds beautiful another may not.
- play into someone's hands — To act in a way that unintentionally helps an opponent.
- make a hash of something — To do something very badly.
- all hell breaks loose — Chaos and disorder suddenly erupt.
- you've made your bed, now lie in it — You must accept the consequences of your own choices.
From our tongue twisters
- The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. — Believed by Guinness to be among the hardest in English — 'six/sick/sheikh/sheep' blur in…
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. — The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…