Að fara í geitarhús að leita ullar
Meaning: To seek something where it can't possibly be found.
Language: Icelandic
Literally: To go to the goat shed looking for wool
Category: Animals
Origin: Goats yield no wool, so searching their shed for it pictures a hopeless, misdirected errand.
More idioms — Animals
- So skaars soos hoendertande — Extremely rare; almost non-existent.
- آستین کا سانپ — A treacherous false friend.
- Il pleut comme vache qui pisse — It's pouring down — a crude, vivid way to say the rain is coming down extremely hard.
- sleep with the fishes — To be dead, with one's body disposed of in the ocean or a large body of water.
- straight from the horse's mouth — Information received directly from the original source, without intermediaries.
- thin the herd — To reduce the size of a group by removing members, typically the weakest or least product…
More Icelandic idioms
- Að leggja árar í bát — To give up and stop trying.
- Að leggja höfuðið í bleyti — To sleep on a problem and think hard about it.
- Þetta reddast — Things will work out fine in the end.
- Að ganga með grasið í skónum — To be secretly in love or full of longing.
- Að kasta til höndunum — To do a job carelessly and in haste.
- Rúsínan í pylsuendanum — A pleasant, unexpected bonus at the very end.
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