Att kasta yxan i sjön
Meaning: To give up completely.
Language: Swedish
Literally: To throw the axe in the lake
Category: Nature
Origin: Hurling your only tool into the water means abandoning the whole effort once and for all.
Equivalents in other languages
- English: throw in the towel — literally: to throw in the towel
- Czech: Házet flintu do žita — literally: To throw the rifle into the rye
- Icelandic: Að leggja árar í bát — literally: To lay the oars in the boat
- French: Jeter l'éponge — literally: To throw the sponge
More idioms — Nature
- 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.
- Mennä metsään — To go completely wrong.
- Havadan sudan konuşmak — To make idle small talk.
- آب از سرش گذشته (âb az sarash gozashte) — It is already too late to save the situation.
- Sambil menyelam minum air — To accomplish two things in one go.
More Swedish idioms
- Att ha en räv bakom örat — To be cunning and sly.
- Att smita från notan — To dodge paying or shirk responsibility.
- Att sätta sig på tvären — To be obstinate and refuse to cooperate.
- ge järnet — Exert maximum effort; give one's all.
- ta sig vatten över huvudet — Get in over one's head; take on more than one can manage.
- under kniven — Undergoing surgery, or under intense pressure to perform.
From our untranslatable words
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- Pochemuchka — A person — usually a child — who asks an endless stream of questions, one 'why?' after an…
- Razliubit — To fall out of love — the process of ceasing to love someone you once loved, leaving behi…