At slå koldt vand i blodet
Meaning: To calm down and keep a cool head.
Language: Danish
Literally: To pour cold water into the blood
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: A centuries-old Danish image of cooling overheated, panicking blood back to a steady temperature.
Equivalents in other languages
- Arabic: حط في بطنك بطيخة صيفي (ḥuṭṭ fī baṭnak baṭīkha ṣayfī) — literally: Put a summer watermelon in your belly
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Брати ноги в руки (Braty nohy v ruky) — To hurry up and get moving quickly.
- על הפנים (al hapanim) — Terrible, awful, in a wretched state.
- Les doigts dans le nez — To do something with the greatest of ease.
- By the skin of your teeth — By the narrowest possible margin.
- Ser uña y carne — To be inseparable; the closest of friends.
- Fare le corna — To ward off bad luck — or to signal that a partner is being unfaithful.
More Danish idioms
- At gå agurk — To go crazy or berserk.
- At have rotter på loftet — To be a little crazy.
- Det blæser en halv pelikan — It is extremely windy.
- At tisse i bukserne for at holde varmen — A quick fix that makes the problem worse soon after.
- At save den gren over man selv sidder på — To undermine your own position.
- At gå over åen efter vand — To do something in a needlessly roundabout way.
From our tongue twisters
- Корабли лавировали, лавировали, да не вылавировали. (Korabli lavirovali, lavirovali, da ne vylavirovali.) — One verb, three inflections, pure 'lav/vir' torture — the word grows with every repetitio…
- W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie. — The opening of a poem by Julian Tuwim, now Poland's most-quoted tongue twister — the cons…
- Stół z powyłamywanymi nogami. — Six words, almost no vowels — a single noun phrase that non-Polish speakers find impossib…