freeze one's butt off
Meaning: To be extremely cold.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “We froze our butts off waiting for the parade.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: A comic exaggeration, one of many "___ off" phrases ("laugh one's head off"). It is informal American English from the 20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Se cailler les miches — literally: To curdle one's buttocks
More idioms — Body & Senses
- have a nerve — To be rude or bold in a way that shocks others.
- get on someone's nerves — To annoy someone.
- knock someone's socks off — To impress or amaze someone greatly.
- throw one's weight around — To use one's power or importance in an overbearing way.
- swap spit — To kiss passionately (slang).
- hit the wall — To suddenly run out of energy.
More English idioms
- drive someone up the wall — To annoy someone intensely.
- be in clover — To live in comfort and luxury.
- right up one's alley — Exactly suited to someone's interests or skills.
- go downhill — To get steadily worse.
- have the luck of the devil — To be extraordinarily lucky.
- hightail it — To leave in a great hurry.
From our tongue twisters
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? — A 'w/ch/ck' drill that accelerates comically — and nobody really knows the answer.
- The sixth sick sheikh's sixth sheep's sick. — Believed by Guinness to be among the hardest in English — 'six/sick/sheikh/sheep' blur in…
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.