a spare tire
Meaning: A roll of fat around the waist.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Two winters without cycling gave him a spare tire.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The comparison is to the spare wheel once carried around the back of a car. It is informal English from the 20th century; the British also say "spare tyre."
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: curva de la felicidad — literally: curve of happiness
More idioms — Body & Senses
- get out of hand — To become impossible to control.
- bang one's head against a brick wall — To keep trying something with no result.
- get off on the right foot — To make a good start.
- turn one's back on someone — To abandon or refuse to help someone.
- one's heart sinks — To feel sudden disappointment or dread.
- shoulder to shoulder — Side by side, working together.
More English idioms
- count one's chickens before they hatch — To rely on something good before it has actually happened.
- give and take — Mutual compromise, where each side concedes something.
- on the sly — Secretly, so as not to be seen.
- small potatoes — Something unimportant or trivial.
- a dog's breakfast — A complete mess.
- not a peep — Not a sound, or not a word from someone.
From our proverbs
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- He that goes far from home for a wife, either intends to cheat or will be cheated. — Marrying a stranger from distant lands invites deception, whether intentional fraud or na…