Hablar por los codos
Meaning: To talk nonstop.
Language: Spanish
Literally: To talk through the elbows
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Spanish Golden Age writers noted that chatterboxes nudge listeners with their elbows so no one can escape the conversation.
Equivalents in other languages
- Welsh: Siarad fel pwll y môr — literally: To talk like the sea's pool
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Costar un ojo de la cara — To be outrageously expensive.
- Quedarse de piedra — To be stunned speechless.
- 발이 넓다 (bari neopda) — To be extremely well-connected.
- Å ha bein i nesa — To be assertive and able to stand your ground.
- Å snakke rett fra leveren — To speak frankly, without softening anything.
- At slå koldt vand i blodet — To calm down and keep a cool head.
More Spanish idioms
- No hay tu tía — There's no way around it; nothing can be done.
- Estar de Rodríguez — To be a husband left working in town while the family is on holiday.
- Ser uña y carne — To be inseparable; the closest of friends.
- Dar gato por liebre — To swindle by passing off something inferior as the real thing.
- Importar un pepino — To not care in the slightest.
- Ponerse las pilas — To get your act together and start working hard.
From our untranslatable words
- Puente — The day taken off to 'bridge' a midweek public holiday to the weekend, turning it into a…
- Vergüenza ajena — The squirming embarrassment felt on behalf of another person, who may be entirely untroub…
- Sobremesa — The unhurried conversation that lingers long after a meal, when no one wants to leave the…