get off on the right foot
Meaning: To make a good start.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Bring the neighbors a cake and you'll get off on the right foot.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Superstition long held the right foot lucky and the left unlucky; Roman writers warned against entering a house left foot first. The phrase, with its opposite "the wrong foot," is common from the 20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: con el pie derecho — literally: with the right foot
More idioms — Body & Senses
- turn one's back on someone — To abandon or refuse to help someone.
- one's heart sinks — To feel sudden disappointment or dread.
- shoulder to shoulder — Side by side, working together.
- tread carefully — To act with great caution in a delicate situation.
- pull the other one — Said to someone telling an obvious lie.
- the heart of the matter — The most important part of an issue.
More English idioms
- have plenty left in the tank — To still have energy or resources in reserve.
- willy-nilly — Whether one wants it or not; also, in a disorganized way.
- make oneself scarce — To leave quickly, or to keep out of the way.
- no holds barred — With no rules or restraints.
- jump at the chance — To accept an opportunity eagerly and at once.
- a matter of life and death — Something of the greatest possible seriousness.
From our untranslatable words
- Beloruchka — Someone who dodges dirty or hard work — a person whose hands stay conspicuously clean.
- Zapoi — A bender running for days, in which a person drops out of ordinary life entirely.
- Saudade — A deep, nostalgic yearning for someone or something absent — tinged with the bittersweet…