полтора землекопа
Meaning: An absurdly small group; a nonsensical quantity that defies rational measure.
Language: Russian
Literally: one and a half diggers
Category: The Absurd
Origin: An old Russian phrase mocking the absurdity of counting people in fractions, used to describe a ridiculously tiny workforce.
More idioms — The Absurd
- на честном слове и на одном крыле — Succeeding or surviving by the barest margin, through luck or desperation rather than sol…
- ври больше — An expression of dismissive disbelief; an ironical way of saying someone's story is uncon…
- пускаться во все тяжкие — To abandon restraint and indulge recklessly in vices or wrongdoing without scruple.
- хоть ложись и умирай — There is no escape or solution; one must accept an impossible or desperate situation.
- хоть убей — For the life of me; under no circumstances or condition could one do something.
- хоть умри — No matter what the cost or consequence; absolutely and without exception.
More Russian idioms
- язык проглотил — To be unable or unwilling to speak; to remain silent when words are called for.
- метать бисер перед свиньями — To offer something precious or refined to someone incapable of appreciating it.
- сушить сухари — To prepare oneself mentally and materially for imprisonment or arrest.
- отбросить копыта — To die, to kick the bucket.
- чепуха на постном масле — Complete and utter nonsense or rubbish.
- пан или пропал — To risk everything on a single venture; all or nothing, sink or swim.
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