Ser uña y carne
Meaning: To be inseparable; the closest of friends.
Language: Spanish
Literally: To be fingernail and flesh
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Nail and the flesh beneath it cannot be parted without pain — the Spanish picture of a bond that simply won't separate.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Fare le corna — To ward off bad luck — or to signal that a partner is being unfaithful.
- Stare con le mani in mano — To stand around doing nothing while others work.
- 腹が黒い (hara ga kuroi) — Scheming and malicious behind a friendly face.
- Зарубить на носу (Zarubit' na nosu) — To remember something firmly, once and for all.
- Iets onder de knie hebben — To have mastered a skill.
- اللي على راسه بطحة بيحسس عليها (illi ʿala rasu baṭḥa byiḥassis ʿalayha) — The guilty person gives himself away.
More Spanish idioms
- Dar gato por liebre — To swindle by passing off something inferior as the real thing.
- Importar un pepino — To not care in the slightest.
- Ponerse las pilas — To get your act together and start working hard.
- 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.
From our tongue twisters
- El perro de San Roque no tiene rabo porque Ramón Ramírez se lo ha robado. — A rolled-'r' workout — every word demands the vibrating trill.
- Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril; rápido ruedan los carros sobre los rieles del ferrocarril. — The definitive Spanish rr drill — unrelenting double-r from start to finish.
- Parangaricutirimícuaro — Not a sentence but a single word — a legendary 22-letter pronunciation challenge from a r…