have a short fuse
Meaning: To lose one's temper easily.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “Don't joke with the coach before a game; he has a short fuse.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From explosives: the shorter the fuse, the sooner the blast. Said of quick-tempered people, it is on record in the United States by 1942.
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: Tener mala uva — literally: To have bad grape
- French: Être soupe au lait — literally: To be milk soup
- Finnish: Olla pinna kireällä — literally: To have the spoke tight
More idioms — Daily Life
- 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.
- 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.
More English idioms
- 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.
- not sleep a wink — To not sleep at all.
- work oneself into a lather — To become very agitated, anxious or angry.
- be all the rage — To be extremely fashionable or popular for a time.
- avoid like the plague — To stay as far away as possible from someone or something.
From our proverbs
- The lower millstone grinds as well as the upper. — Humble, ordinary work produces results as valuable as prestigious labor.
- A wise man changes his mind; a fool never. — Holding firm to wrong beliefs demonstrates stubbornness, while reconsidering based on new…
- A pennyworth of mirth is worth a pound of sorrow. — Small moments of joy provide disproportionate relief from accumulated grief and hardship.