get to the bottom of it
Meaning: To discover the real cause or truth of a matter.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Someone keeps taking my lunch from the office fridge, and I'm going to get to the bottom of it.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: "Bottom" meant the deepest ground of something by Shakespeare's time — Romeo and Juliet speaks of "the bottom of my grief." Getting to the bottom of a matter, in the sense of finding out the truth, is recorded from the late 17th century.
Other ways to say this
- Dutch: Nu komt de aap uit de mouw — literally: Now the monkey comes out of the sleeve
- French: Découvrir le pot aux roses — literally: To discover the pot of roses
- Hungarian: Kibújik a szög a zsákból — literally: The nail pokes out of the sack
- Arabic: حبل الكذب قصير (ḥabl al-kadhib qaṣīr) — literally: The rope of lies is short
- English: the truth will out
More idioms — Daily Life
- be taken for a ride — To be cheated or deceived.
- have a short fuse — To lose one's temper easily.
- not to give a hoot — Not to care at all.
- have a blast — To have a very good time.
- set alarm bells ringing — To make someone suspect that something is wrong.
- throw the baby out with the bathwater — To discard something valuable while getting rid of what is unwanted.
More English idioms
- have a heart of gold — To be very kind and generous.
- be full of beans — To be lively and full of energy.
- get back on one's feet — To recover after an illness or a setback.
- the pot calling the kettle black — Said when someone criticizes another person for a fault they have themselves.
- keep one's cards close to one's chest — To keep one's plans or intentions secret.
- not sleep a wink — To not sleep at all.