Skägget i brevlådan
Meaning: Caught red-handed in an awkward, embarrassing position.
Language: Swedish
Literally: With your beard in the mailbox
Category: The Absurd
Origin: Twentieth-century Swedish humor: stoop to peek through the mail slot and it snaps shut on your beard — guilty and stuck.
Equivalents in other languages
- Greek: Πιάστηκε στα πράσα — literally: Caught in the leeks
More idioms — The Absurd
- يعمل من الحبة قبة (Ya'mal min al-ḥabba qubba) — To blow something tiny completely out of proportion.
- Helt texas — Utterly wild, chaotic or out of control.
- Det blæser en halv pelikan — It is extremely windy.
- Ei ole kaikki muumit laaksossa — Someone isn't quite all there.
- לאכול סרטים (Le'ekhol sratim) — To overthink and imagine dramatic worst-case scenarios.
- خر بیار و باقالی بار کن (khar biyār o bāqālī bār kon) — Utter chaos; an endless, overwhelming mess.
More Swedish idioms
- Ana ugglor i mossen — To sense that something fishy is going on.
- Lägga rabarber på något — To claim or grab something for yourself.
- Nu har du satt din sista potatis — You've done your last misdeed; you're finished.
- Att göra en pudel — To make a public, groveling apology.
- Att ha tummen mitt i handen — To be hopelessly clumsy; all thumbs.
- Nu är det kokta fläsket stekt — Now we're really in trouble.
From our untranslatable words
- Menefreghista — Someone who has made not caring into an entire stance — indifference as a way of life.
- Apericena — The evening drink whose accompanying buffet is generous enough to replace dinner altogeth…
- Dugnad — Unpaid work done together for the common good — neighbours painting the building, parents…