go off on a tangent
Meaning: To wander away from the subject being discussed.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The lecture on bees went off on a tangent about his holiday in Crete.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: In geometry a tangent touches a curve at one point and then heads off in its own direction. The figurative use for a speaker who leaves the topic is found from the 18th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: irse por los cerros de Úbeda — literally: to go off into the hills of Úbeda
- German: vom Hundertsten ins Tausendste kommen — literally: to come from the hundredth into the thousandth
More idioms — Daily Life
- strike out — To fail completely, especially in an attempt to attract someone.
- nothing doing — Refusal; there is no chance of that happening.
- be in the know — To have information that most people do not have.
- be off one's game — To perform worse than usual.
- be miles away — To be lost in thought and not paying attention.
- take one's ball and go home — To quit in a sulk and spoil the activity for everyone else.
More English idioms
- clear as day — Completely obvious.
- have had it up to here — To be completely fed up.
- sly as a fox — Very cunning.
- walk a tightrope — To be in a situation where one small mistake would be disastrous.
- a spare tire — A roll of fat around the waist.
- count one's chickens before they hatch — To rely on something good before it has actually happened.
From our tongue twisters
- 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.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. — The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.