roll in the hay
Meaning: To have casual sex.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The movie hints that the farmhand and the heiress had a roll in the hay.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The image is of lovers in a hayloft or haystack, a rural setting of many old songs. The phrase is recorded in American English around 1940.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: S'envoyer en l'air — literally: To send oneself into the air
More idioms — Daily Life
- pull an all-nighter — To stay up all night, usually to study or work.
- the gospel truth — Something absolutely true.
- sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me — Insults cannot really harm you, so they are best ignored.
- know someone in the biblical sense — To have had sex with someone.
- a last stand — A final, determined effort to resist, usually when defeat is likely.
- you could hear a pin drop — It was completely silent.
More English idioms
- thick as a brick — Very stupid.
- shed light on — To help explain something or make it clearer.
- laugh one's head off — To laugh very loudly and for a long time.
- blow a gale — Of the wind: to blow extremely hard.
- drunk as a skunk — Extremely drunk.
- in one's birthday suit — Completely naked.
From our proverbs
- An oak is not felled by one blow. — Great strength and resilience require persistent effort; single attempts cannot overcome…
- An occasion lost cannot be redeemed. — Missed opportunities vanish permanently; time's passing erases chances that won't return.
- When old age is evil, youth can learn no good. — A corrupt elder corrupts the next generation; moral decay flows downward through families…