сражаться с ветряными мельницами
Meaning: To struggle against imaginary or futile enemies; to waste effort on impossible causes.
Language: Russian
Literally: to fight with windmills
Category: The Absurd
Origin: From Miguel de Cervantes' *Don Quixote* (1605), where the deluded protagonist attacks windmills believing them to be giants.
More idioms — The Absurd
- полтора землекопа — An absurdly small group; a nonsensical quantity that defies rational measure.
- на честном слове и на одном крыле — Succeeding or surviving by the barest margin, through luck or desperation rather than sol…
- ври больше — An expression of dismissive disbelief; an ironical way of saying someone's story is uncon…
- пускаться во все тяжкие — To abandon restraint and indulge recklessly in vices or wrongdoing without scruple.
- хоть ложись и умирай — There is no escape or solution; one must accept an impossible or desperate situation.
- хоть убей — For the life of me; under no circumstances or condition could one do something.
More Russian idioms
- ходить вокруг да около — To avoid speaking plainly; to approach a subject indirectly or evasively.
- гнать в три шеи — To expel or drive someone away forcefully and without ceremony.
- язык проглотил — To be unable or unwilling to speak; to remain silent when words are called for.
- метать бисер перед свиньями — To offer something precious or refined to someone incapable of appreciating it.
- сушить сухари — To prepare oneself mentally and materially for imprisonment or arrest.
- отбросить копыта — To die, to kick the bucket.
Loading the full interactive collection…