a snake in the grass
Meaning: A treacherous person who pretends to be a friend.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “I trusted him with the plans, but he was a snake in the grass.”
Category: Animals
Origin: From Virgil's Eclogues: "latet anguis in herba" (a snake lurks in the grass). The English phrase is found from the 17th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Japanese: 腹が黒い (hara ga kuroi) — literally: The belly is black
More idioms — Animals
- shut the stable door after the horse has bolted — To take precautions only after the harm is done.
- kick the cat — To take out one's anger on someone weaker or innocent.
- be put out to pasture — To be retired or set aside as no longer useful.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
More English idioms
- give one's eyeteeth for something — To want something very badly.
- a stroke of luck — A sudden, unexpected piece of good fortune.
- if at first you don't succeed, try, try again — Keep trying after failure.
- like chalk and cheese — Completely different, though perhaps similar at first glance.
- look before you leap — Think carefully before acting.
- blush to the roots of one's hair — To go very red with embarrassment.
From our proverbs
- Puff not against the wind. — Wasting energy on futile resistance exhausts you; work with circumstances instead of agai…
- Be ruled by your purse. — Financial constraints should dictate your decisions and discipline your ambitions more th…
- Wrinkled purses make wrinkled faces. — Poverty and financial hardship leave visible marks of stress and worry upon a person's ap…