salvar las apariencias
Meaning: To maintain an outward show of respectability or normalcy despite underlying problems.
Language: Spanish
Literally: to save the appearances
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The phrase pictures someone preserving the surface or façade of a situation even when the reality beneath is compromised.
More idioms — Daily Life
- a todo mecate — At full speed; with maximum effort; going all out.
- de un plumazo — suddenly or in a single swift action, as if accomplished with one stroke of a pen.
- ni a tiros — absolutely not; under no circumstances.
- a la buena de Dios — To proceed carelessly or without proper planning, leaving the outcome to chance or fate.
- cuéntame una de vaqueros — A challenge to someone to stop lying or exaggerating; an equivalent of "pull the other on…
- cortar por lo sano — To sever a problem decisively rather than manage it halfway, making a clean break or radi…
More Spanish idioms
- crecer como la espuma — To increase or expand very rapidly and dramatically.
- por la cara — Boldly and undeservedly; without earning it or paying for it; purely out of audacity or s…
- viva estampa — An exact likeness; someone or something that looks exactly like another.
- éramos pocos y parió la abuela — as if that wasn't enough, things went from bad to worse.
- mal trago — a difficult or unpleasant experience; a bitter pill to swallow.
- en dos patadas — very easily or effortlessly.
From our proverbs
- Just is honest, and honest is just. — Integrity and fairness are inseparable—acting justly requires honesty, and honesty demand…
- Keep a thing seven years, and you will find a use for it. — Patience with possessions reveals hidden utility; what seems worthless today becomes inva…
- The wife is the key of the house. — A household's harmony and function depend entirely on the woman who manages its interior…