drive someone up the wall
Meaning: To annoy someone intensely.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “That dripping faucet is driving me up the wall.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The image is of someone so frantic they would try to climb the walls. The phrase is found from the mid-20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Swedish: reta gallfeber på — literally: to tease gall-fever on
- French: Faire devenir chèvre — literally: To make someone turn into a goat
More idioms — Daily Life
- right up one's alley — Exactly suited to someone's interests or skills.
- have the luck of the devil — To be extraordinarily lucky.
- take a hike — Go away; get lost.
- nobody's fool — A sensible person who is not easily tricked.
- swing the lead — To avoid work, especially by pretending to be ill.
- no sweat — No problem; that's easy.
More English idioms
- be in clover — To live in comfort and luxury.
- go downhill — To get steadily worse.
- hightail it — To leave in a great hurry.
- diddly-squat — Nothing at all.
- have a nerve — To be rude or bold in a way that shocks others.
- you could have knocked me down with a feather — I was extremely surprised.
From our proverbs
- A tree is known by its fruit, and not by its leaves. — Character reveals itself through actions and results, not promises or appearances.
- Set trees poor, and they will grow rich; set them rich, and they will grow poor. — Excessive initial resources weaken plants' root development, while hardship forces them t…
- Fall not out with a friend for a trifle. — Friendships are too valuable to sacrifice over minor disagreements or petty disputes.