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Ponerse las pilas

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

Language: Spanish

Literally: To put your batteries in

Category: Daily Life

Origin: A modern image from battery-powered devices: insert the batteries and finally spring into action.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • Бить баклуши — To loaf about doing nothing.
  • Pisar na bola — To mess up or let someone down.
  • 바가지를 쓰다 — To be overcharged; to get ripped off.
  • 비행기를 태우다 — To flatter someone over the top.
  • Pabucu dama atılmak — To fall out of favor and be cast aside.
  • Être dans de beaux draps — To be in a real mess.

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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