RussianЗаговаривать зубы (Zagovarivat' zuby)
Meaning: To distract someone with smooth, evasive talk.
Literally: To talk someone's teeth away
Example: “Не заговаривай мне зубы, где деньги?” — Don't give me the runaround; where's the money?
English equivalent: To give someone the runaround
Equivalents in other languages
French: Noyer le poisson Literally: To drown the fish
Japanese: お茶を濁す (ocha o nigosu) Literally: To muddy the tea
Greek: Άλλα λόγια ν' αγαπιόμαστε Literally: Other words so we may love each other
English: muddy the waters- English: give someone the runaround
Origin: From the folk healers of old Russia, as Russian Wiktionary and Fedorov's phrase dictionary explain: they treated illnesses, toothache among them, with заговоры, spells whispered over the patient. "Talking the teeth" was first literally charming away the pain; it came to mean distracting someone with talk so they would not notice what really mattered. Michelson's dictionary quotes it from Gleb Uspensky's village sketches of the 1870s–80s.
More Russian idioms
- Вешать всех собак (Veshat' vsekh sobak) To blame someone for everything.
- 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…
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