do a moonlight flit
Meaning: To leave one's home secretly at night, usually to avoid paying rent or debts.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The tenants did a moonlight flit, leaving behind a broken sofa and six months' rent.”
Category: Nature
Origin: British English: "flit" means to move house in Scots and northern dialects, and moving by moonlight avoided the landlord. The phrase is recorded from the 19th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Déménager à la cloche de bois — literally: To move out by the wooden bell
More idioms — Nature
- in the middle of nowhere — In a very remote place, far from towns.
- out of thin air — Appearing from nowhere, as if by magic.
- be at a low ebb — To be in a poor or weak state.
- the four corners of the earth — Every part of the world.
- like a bolt from the blue — Completely unexpected, usually of bad news.
- hearts and flowers — Excessive sentimentality.
More English idioms
- pipped at the post — To be beaten at the very last moment.
- twiddle one's thumbs — To do nothing while waiting or out of boredom.
- a nest of vipers — A group of people who scheme against or betray each other.
- once bitten, twice shy — After a bad experience, one is much more cautious.
- I could eat a horse — I am extremely hungry.
- give someone a leg up — To help someone make progress or get started.
From our untranslatable words
- Weltschmerz — The weariness and sadness you feel when the world as it is falls painfully short of the w…
- Torschlusspanik — The anxious fear that time is running out — that the gates of opportunity, youth, or life…
- Kummerspeck — The weight you gain from emotional eating — the extra pounds that accumulate during heart…