Avoir une araignée au plafond
Meaning: To be a little crazy.
Language: French
Literally: To have a spider on the ceiling
Category: Animals
Origin: A cobwebbed, spider-ridden ceiling pictures a head whose upper rooms have been left untended.
Equivalents in other languages
- Danish: At have rotter på loftet — literally: To have rats in the attic
- Finnish: Ei ole kaikki muumit laaksossa — literally: Not all the Moomins are in the valley
More idioms — Animals
- Einen Kater haben — To have a hangover.
- Buscarle tres pies al gato — To overcomplicate things; to look for trouble.
- Non sapere che pesci pigliare — To be at a complete loss what to do.
- Acertar na mosca — To be exactly right; to hit the bullseye.
- Dar com os burros n'água — To fail despite all your effort.
- Считать ворон (Schitat' voron) — To idle and let chances slip by.
More French idioms
- Ramener sa fraise — To butt in or show off uninvited.
- Ça m'en touche une sans faire bouger l'autre — I couldn't care less; it leaves me utterly indifferent.
- Prendre son pied — To take intense pleasure; to have a wonderful time.
- Il pleut comme vache qui pisse — It's pouring down — a crude, vivid way to say the rain is coming down extremely hard.
- Mettre la puce à l'oreille — To arouse someone's suspicion or make them uneasy about something.
- Sortir de ses gonds — To fly into a rage; to lose one's temper suddenly and violently.
From our untranslatable words
- Épanouissement — The full flourishing of a person — blooming into your most complete, radiant self. More t…
- Ressourcement — The act of returning to one's roots or origins to find renewal — going back to a place, t…
- Dépaysement — The disorienting yet often pleasant feeling of being far from home, immersed in the unfam…