find one's sea legs
Meaning: To get used to a boat's movement; to grow comfortable in a new situation.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “It took a few weeks, but she found her sea legs in the new job.”
Category: Nature
Origin: Sailors spoke of "sea legs," the ability to walk steadily on a rolling deck, from the 18th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Avoir le pied marin — literally: To have the sea foot
More idioms — Nature
- storm clouds are gathering — Trouble is coming.
- terra firma — Solid ground, as opposed to the sea or the air.
- a rolling stone gathers no moss — Someone who keeps moving never settles or accumulates anything; sometimes also, keeping a…
- little strokes fell great oaks — Small, steady efforts achieve great results.
- protect one's turf — To defend one's area of control or responsibility against others.
- chase rainbows — To pursue something unrealistic.
More English idioms
- break a leg — Good luck, said to a performer before going on stage.
- hey presto — Said when something happens suddenly, as if by magic.
- search me — I don't know.
- set the cat among the pigeons — To say or do something that causes trouble or uproar.
- be rolling in it — To be very rich.
- be worth one's weight in gold — To be extremely valuable or useful.
From our proverbs
- Better be ill spoken of by one before all, than by all before one. — Public criticism from a single person is preferable to private gossip spreading through m…
- Rich men's spots are covered with money. — Wealth allows the privileged to hide their flaws and escape consequences that ordinary pe…
- Throw a sprat to catch a whale. — Small initial sacrifices yield disproportionately larger gains when investments are strat…