Olla pipo kireällä
Meaning: To be uptight, grumpy or in a foul mood.
Language: Finnish
Literally: To have your beanie on tight
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A too-tight woolly hat squeezing the head pictures the strained, irritable Finn perfectly; popular in modern speech.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Se lever du pied gauche — literally: To get up on the left foot
- Polish: Być nie w sosie — literally: To be out of the sauce
- English: get up on the wrong side of the bed
More idioms — Daily Life
- Mít kliku — To be lucky.
- A freca menta — To waste time; to loaf around doing nothing useful.
- A-i pica fisa — To finally understand something.
- חבל על הזמן (Ḥaval ʿal ha-zman) — Amazing, fantastic — though it literally means 'a waste of time'.
- בא לי (ba li) — I feel like it; I'm in the mood for it.
- قربونت برم (ghorbunet beram) — An affectionate thank-you or term of endearment — 'you're so dear to me'.
More Finnish idioms
- Päästä kuin koira veräjästä — To escape consequences entirely; to get off scot-free.
- Olla kuin Ellun kanat — To live a carefree, comfortable life.
- Vetää lonkalta — To improvise; to wing it.
- Mennä metsään — To go completely wrong.
- Olla pinna kireällä — To be on edge and short-tempered.
- Lyödä rahoiksi — To cash in; to profit handsomely.