lie low
Meaning: To stay out of sight and avoid attention.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “After the scandal broke, the senator decided to lie low for a few weeks.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1600) has "some of us would lie low" for keeping out of harm's way; the sense of hiding to avoid notice, especially from the law, is recorded from 1845. "Lay low" is a common variant.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: faire le mort — literally: to play the dead man
- French: Se mettre au vert — literally: To put oneself to the green
More idioms — Daily Life
- get lucky — To succeed in having a sexual encounter.
- shout it from the rooftops — To tell everyone about something, openly and loudly.
- be in the thick of it — To be in the busiest or most intense part of an activity.
- take French leave — To leave without saying goodbye or asking permission.
- dress to the nines — To dress very smartly or elaborately.
- have friends in high places — To know influential people who can help one.
More English idioms
- eat one's words — To admit that something one said was wrong.
- have a big head — To be conceited; to think too highly of oneself.
- have itchy feet — To feel a restless urge to travel or move on.
- wait on someone hand and foot — To do everything for someone, attending to their every need.
- bare one's teeth — To show hostility and a readiness to fight.
- one's eyes are bigger than one's stomach — To take more food than one can eat; more broadly, to want more than one can handle.
From our compliments & insults
- Eres más lento que el caballo del malo — You're painfully slow — the villain's horse never catches the hero.
- Testa di rapa — A blockhead who isn't thinking.
- Du hast doch einen Vogel — You're a bit out of your mind.