get the wrong end of the stick
Meaning: To misunderstand something completely.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “She got the wrong end of the stick and thought the party was canceled.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A stick picked up by the wrong end is useless, or worse; one old explanation points to a walking stick grasped by its muddy tip. The British phrase is recorded from the 19th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Italian: Capire fischi per fiaschi — literally: To understand whistles as flasks
More idioms — Daily Life
- on tenterhooks — In anxious suspense.
- on the ropes — Close to defeat or collapse.
- move with the times — To keep up with change instead of clinging to old ways.
- beat the drum for something — To promote something loudly and publicly.
- any old how — Carelessly, with no attention to doing it properly.
- without a fight — With no resistance at all.
More English idioms
- have a bee in one's bonnet — To be obsessed with one idea.
- put down roots — To settle somewhere permanently.
- start off on the wrong foot — To begin something badly.
- take one's breath away — To astonish someone with beauty or surprise.
- go away empty-handed — To get nothing at all.
- hit rock bottom — To reach the lowest possible point.
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