walk a tightrope
Meaning: To be in a situation where one small mistake would be disastrous.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “The negotiator was walking a tightrope between the two families.”
Category: The Absurd
Origin: Circus tightrope walkers have no margin for error. The figurative use is common from the 20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: en la cuerda floja — literally: on the loose rope
More idioms — The Absurd
- lose one's marbles — To go crazy.
- think outside the box — To find an unconventional solution.
- where the sun doesn't shine — Somewhere hidden; also a rude way of naming the body.
- away with the fairies — Daydreaming, or not quite in touch with reality.
- something is rotten in the state of Denmark — Something is seriously wrong, often something being hidden.
- all hell breaks loose — Chaos and disorder suddenly erupt.
More English idioms
- take one's ball and go home — To quit in a sulk and spoil the activity for everyone else.
- a spare tire — A roll of fat around the waist.
- count one's chickens before they hatch — To rely on something good before it has actually happened.
- give and take — Mutual compromise, where each side concedes something.
- on the sly — Secretly, so as not to be seen.
- small potatoes — Something unimportant or trivial.
From our untranslatable words
- Dietrologia — The conviction that the official account is never the real one — that some hidden motive…
- Attaccabottoni — The person who corners you and holds you in an endless, tedious story you cannot politely…
- Menefreghista — Someone who has made not caring into an entire stance — indifference as a way of life.