kick it up a notch
Meaning: To increase effort, intensity or excitement.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The team kicked it up a notch in the second half.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A notch is one step on a scale. The phrase was popularized in the 1990s by the American TV chef Emeril Lagasse.
Equivalents in other languages
- Dutch: een tandje bijsteken — literally: to stick on a little tooth
More idioms — Daily Life
- under lock and key — Securely locked away.
- the truth will out — The truth cannot stay hidden forever.
- above board — Honest and open, with nothing hidden.
- stake a claim — To declare that something is yours, or that you have a right to it.
- raze to the ground — To destroy a building or town completely.
- dig one's own grave — To cause one's own downfall.
More English idioms
- take matters into one's own hands — To act oneself because others have failed to.
- fight fire with fire — To respond to an attack with the same methods.
- all in one's head — Imagined rather than real, or a matter of attitude.
- stink to high heaven — To smell terrible; also, to seem very dishonest.
- on a silver platter — Given to someone without any effort on their part.
- dig one's heels in — To refuse stubbornly to change one's mind.
From our untranslatable words
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