be off one's game
Meaning: To perform worse than usual.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “She apologized for the messy drawing and said she was off her game.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From sport, where a player's "game" is their usual standard. The figurative use is common from the 20th century.
Other ways to say this
- Greek: Τα έκανε θάλασσα — literally: He turned it all into a sea
- Portuguese: Pisar na bola — literally: To step on the ball
- Spanish: No dar pie con bola — literally: To not give foot to ball
- English: drop the ball
- English: make a hash of something
More idioms — Daily Life
- be miles away — To be lost in thought and not paying attention.
- take one's ball and go home — To quit in a sulk and spoil the activity for everyone else.
- give and take — Mutual compromise, where each side concedes something.
- on the sly — Secretly, so as not to be seen.
- bail someone out — To rescue someone from trouble, especially by paying.
- a double-edged sword — Something with both good and bad consequences.
More English idioms
- sly as a fox — Very cunning.
- walk a tightrope — To be in a situation where one small mistake would be disastrous.
- a spare tire — A roll of fat around the waist.
- count one's chickens before they hatch — To rely on something good before it has actually happened.
- small potatoes — Something unimportant or trivial.
- a dog's breakfast — A complete mess.
From our proverbs
- Well-drawn wells give the sweetest water. — Careful preparation and proper execution yield superior results worth the initial effort.
- I wept when I was born, and every day shows why. — Life's inevitable sufferings validate the infant's instinctive tears at entering existenc…
- A whet is no let [hindrance]. — Sharpening a tool causes only momentary delay before it works far more effectively than b…