cook the books
Meaning: To falsify figures, especially accounts.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The treasurer had been cooking the books for years.”
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: "Cook" in the old sense of tampering with or dressing something up. "Cooking" accounts is recorded from the 17th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Japanese: 鯖を読む (Saba o yomu) — literally: To read the mackerel
More idioms — Food & Drink
- like chalk and cheese — Completely different, though perhaps similar at first glance.
- teach your grandmother to suck eggs — To give advice to someone who knows far more than you.
- make a hash of something — To do something very badly.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
More English idioms
- out of one's league — Too good, attractive or expensive for someone to have a chance with.
- no room to swing a cat — A very small or cramped space.
- a snake in the grass — A treacherous person who pretends to be a friend.
- give one's eyeteeth for something — To want something very badly.
- a stroke of luck — A sudden, unexpected piece of good fortune.
- if at first you don't succeed, try, try again — Keep trying after failure.