DutchMet de neus in de boter vallen
Meaning: To arrive at exactly the right, lucky moment.
Literally: To fall with your nose in the butter
Example: “We kwamen binnen toen de taart net werd aangesneden: met de neus in de boter.” — We walked in just as the cake was being cut, in the nick of time.
English equivalent: In the nick of time
Origin: Falling nose-first into the butter, or into the fat, is landing in luck: Stoett defines it as coming into an unexpected windfall, arriving just as a feast is under way, or marrying money. Bredero has the version with vet (fat) in his farce Klucht van de molenaar (around 1613), and dialects say it more bluntly, falling into the butter backside first. English once said "to come at pudding-time."
Equivalents in other languages
Italian: Cadere a fagiolo Literally: To fall like a bean
English: in the nick of time- English: right on cue
More Dutch idioms
- Het regent pijpenstelen It is raining very heavily.
- Iets met de Franse slag doen To do it carelessly and half-heartedly.
- De kat uit de boom kijken To wait cautiously before committing.
- Iets voor zoete koek aannemen To swallow a story uncritically.
- Met de gebakken peren zitten To be stuck with the unpleasant aftermath.
- De koe bij de horens vatten To tackle a problem head-on.
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