lay it on with a trowel
Meaning: To flatter or exaggerate very heavily and without subtlety.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “His speech about the retiring CEO laid the praise on with a trowel.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From Shakespeare's As You Like It (around 1600), where Celia mocks a clumsy compliment: "Well said: that was laid on with a trowel." A trowel spreads mortar thickly, not delicately.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: casser le nez à coups d’encensoir — literally: to break the nose with blows of an incense-burner
More idioms — Daily Life
- go down fighting — To keep struggling until the very end, even when defeat is certain.
- that's all she wrote — That is the end of it; there is nothing more.
- the butt of the joke — The person everyone laughs at or makes fun of.
- roll in the hay — To have casual sex.
- pull an all-nighter — To stay up all night, usually to study or work.
- the gospel truth — Something absolutely true.
More English idioms
- fall flat on one's face — To fail completely and embarrassingly.
- burst someone's bubble — To destroy someone's illusion or happy belief.
- prick up one's ears — To suddenly start listening closely.
- rise from the ashes — To be reborn or rebuilt after destruction or failure.
- one's blood runs cold — To be filled with sudden fear or horror.
- stir up a hornet's nest — To cause a lot of trouble or anger, often by provoking people.
From our proverbs
- Need makes the old wife trot. — Urgent necessity compels even the most sluggish or elderly to move quickly and act.
- Love thy neighbour, but pull not down thy hedge. — Affection for others needn't require sacrificing the boundaries that protect your own pro…
- You must ask your neighbour if you shall live in peace. — Living peacefully requires understanding and maintaining good relations with those closes…