be bone idle
Meaning: To be extremely lazy.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “My teenage son is bone idle on weekends; he doesn't get up before noon.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: "Bone" works as an intensifier: the laziness goes right down to the bone. Robert Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia (1830) lists "bone-lazy" and "bone-tired," and Thomas Carlyle wrote "bone idle" in a letter of 1836.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Avoir un poil dans la main — literally: To have a hair in the hand
More idioms — Body & Senses
- like pulling teeth — Extremely difficult, especially when trying to get someone to cooperate.
- put one's foot in it — To say something tactless or embarrassing.
- have pins and needles — To feel a prickling, tingling sensation in a limb that has gone numb.
- have a big head — To be conceited; to think too highly of oneself.
- have itchy feet — To feel a restless urge to travel or move on.
- wait on someone hand and foot — To do everything for someone, attending to their every need.
More English idioms
- have the wind in one's sails — To be doing well and moving forward with confidence and momentum.
- talk behind someone's back — To say unkind things about someone when they are not present.
- add fuel to the fire — To make a bad situation worse.
- be on pins and needles — To be very anxious while waiting for something.
- make a killing — To make a lot of money quickly.
- worm something out of someone — To get information from someone gradually and persistently.
From our compliments & insults
- Eres más bueno que el pan — You are a genuinely good, kind soul.
- Sei in gamba — You're sharp, capable, and on the ball.
- Sei un tesoro — You're a darling — precious to have around.