take stock
Meaning: To review a situation carefully before deciding what to do.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “After the first year of the business, we sat down to take stock.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From shopkeeping, where "taking stock" meant counting the goods on hand. The figurative sense is found from the 19th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Faire le point — literally: To fix the point
More idioms — Daily Life
- with pomp and circumstance — With great ceremony and display.
- reinvent the wheel — To waste effort creating something that already exists.
- a Pyrrhic victory — A win that costs so much it is almost a defeat.
- go to rack and ruin — To fall into a state of decay through neglect.
- an old wives' tale — A traditional belief, especially about health, that is not true.
- a pen-pusher — A clerk or bureaucrat doing dull paperwork.
More English idioms
- protect one's turf — To defend one's area of control or responsibility against others.
- chase rainbows — To pursue something unrealistic.
- on one's toes — Alert and ready to react.
- left high and dry — Stranded or abandoned without help.
- a word to the wise — A hint or warning that a sensible person will heed.
- blood will tell — Family background and inherited character eventually show.
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