Home › Idioms

Гол как сокол

Meaning: Dirt poor; without a thing to your name.

Language: Russian

Literally: Bare as a falcon

Category: Daily Life

Origin: The 'sokol' here was a smooth iron battering ram, not the bird; 'bare as the ram' pictures having absolutely nothing.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • 石橋を叩いて渡る — To be extremely, even excessively, cautious.
  • 釘を刺す — To remind someone firmly so they can't back out.
  • 班门弄斧 — To display feeble skill before a true master.
  • 名落孙山 — To fail an examination.
  • De dans ontspringen — To narrowly escape trouble.
  • Att smita från notan — To dodge paying or shirk responsibility.

More Russian idioms

  • сыпать соль на рану — To deliberately make someone's suffering worse by adding mockery or fresh insult to their…
  • через огонь, воду и медные трубы — To endure any hardship or ordeal without hesitation; to go through anything for someone o…
  • книга за семью печатями — Something utterly mysterious and incomprehensible; a complete enigma.
  • в Тулу со своим самоваром — To do something pointless or wasteful; to bring something unnecessary or redundant to a p…
  • за тридевять земель — An extremely distant, remote place; somewhere impossibly far away.
  • проверять на вшивость — To scrutinize or investigate someone closely to uncover hidden faults or problems; to vet…

← Back to Idioms

Loading the full interactive collection…