RussianВешать всех собак (Veshat' vsekh sobak)
Meaning: To blame someone for everything.
Literally: To hang all the dogs on someone
Example: “На нового сотрудника повесили всех собак.” — They pinned the blame for everything on the new employee.
English equivalent: To pin the blame on someone
Equivalents in other languages
English: pin the blame on someone
Origin: Why dogs are hung on someone is not known for certain. A popular explanation, credited to the linguist Viktor Vinogradov, is that собака was once also a name for the burr, the burdock head that clings to clothes, so hanging dogs on someone would first have been sticking burrs all over them. This is a hypothesis. Fedorov's phrase dictionary records the phrase, also as навешать собак and вешать собак на шею, without explaining it.
More Russian idioms
- Седьмая вода на киселе (Sed'maya voda na kisele) A very distant relative.
- Положить зубы на полку (Polozhit' zuby na polku) To go hungry; to tighten your belt.
- Считать ворон (Schitat' voron) To idle and let chances slip by.
- Гол как сокол (Gol kak sokol) Dirt poor; without a thing to your name.
- сыпать соль на рану (sypat' sol' na ranu) To deliberately make someone's suffering worse by adding mockery or fresh insult to their…
- через огонь, воду и медные трубы (cherez ogon', vodu i mednye truby) To endure any hardship or ordeal without hesitation; to go through anything for someone o…
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