manna from heaven
Meaning: Something good that arrives unexpectedly just when it is needed.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The unexpected tax refund was manna from heaven.”
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: From Exodus 16, where God sends manna, a food that appears on the ground each morning, to feed the Israelites in the desert.
Equivalents in other languages
- Polish: manna z nieba — literally: manna from heaven
More idioms — Food & Drink
- cook the books — To falsify figures, especially accounts.
- like chalk and cheese — Completely different, though perhaps similar at first glance.
- teach your grandmother to suck eggs — To give advice to someone who knows far more than you.
- make a hash of something — To do something very badly.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
More English idioms
- lose face — To lose respect or be humiliated in public.
- play for time — To delay deliberately in the hope of improving one's position.
- shoulder the burden — To take on a heavy responsibility.
- even Homer nods — Even the most skilled people sometimes make mistakes.
- gild the lily — To spoil something already perfect by adding to it.
- borrow trouble — To worry about problems that may never happen.
From our untranslatable words
- Friolero — A person who feels the cold far more than everyone else — always the first to reach for a…
- Empalagar — To be overwhelmed by something so sweet it turns sickly — used of food, and of people who…
- Tutear — To switch to the informal tú with someone — a small, deliberate act of closing social dis…