with only the clothes on one's back
Meaning: With no possessions at all.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “They arrived at the border with only the clothes on their backs.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: What a person wears is all they carry away. The phrase is found from the 19th century, often describing refugees and fire victims.
Equivalents in other languages
- Spanish: con lo puesto — literally: with what is worn
More idioms — Daily Life
- well, I never! — An exclamation of surprise or disbelief.
- luck out — To have unexpected good luck.
- put in one's two cents — To give one's opinion, whether or not it was asked for.
- crunch time — The decisive moment, when there is no more time left.
- get things back on track — To bring a situation back under control after it has gone wrong.
- be in for a rude awakening — To be about to discover an unpleasant truth.
More English idioms
- the heart of the matter — The most important part of an issue.
- play cat and mouse — To toy with someone one has power over.
- blow me down — An exclamation of complete surprise.
- carry coals to Newcastle — To do something completely unnecessary.
- hunky-dory — Perfectly fine.
- be over the moon — Absolutely delighted.
From our proverbs
- A wonder lasts but nine days. — Public fascination with novelty inevitably fades as the extraordinary becomes familiar an…
- To woo is a pleasure in young men, a fault in old. — Courtship befits youth's exuberance but reveals desperation or impropriety in the aged.
- One woodcock does not make a winter. — A single favorable occurrence cannot establish a lasting pattern or justify confident pre…