Ponerse las pilas

Meaning: To get your act together and start working hard.

Literally: To put your batteries in

Example: “Si quieres aprobar en junio, ponte las pilas.” — If you want to pass in June, get your act together.

English equivalent: To get one's act together

Origin: A modern image from battery-powered devices: a toy or a gadget does nothing until its pilas (batteries) are put in. Putting in one's batteries is getting going and working hard, or waking up to what is happening. The Spanish Wiktionary records the second sense across Spain and Latin America, along with the related estar pilas, to be alert.

Equivalents in other languages

English: get one's act together

More Spanish idioms

Estar en el ajo To be in on a secret or scheme.
Ser la oveja negra To be the outcast of the family or group.
Echar leña al fuego To make a bad situation worse.
Tener más cara que espalda To be utterly shameless and brazen.
Tener mala uva To have a nasty temper or ill intentions.
Ponerse como una sopa To get soaked to the bone.

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Equivalents in other languages

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