“Drive someone up the wall”in other languages
Annoy someone intensely.
English
French
Swedish
EnglishFrenchSwedishSame idea, different pictures
English makes the person so frantic they'd climb the walls. French turns them into a goat, faire devenir chèvre, an animal known for its stubbornness and its sudden bursts of temper.
Swedish gives them gall fever, reta gallfeber på. It goes back to the old belief that anger came from bile.
More sayings in other languages
- A drop in the bucket
- Drunk as a skunk
- Lead someone up the garden path
- Eat humble pie
- Have egg on your face
- Fall for it hook, line, and sinker
- Fall on deaf ears
- Firing on all cylinders
- Flat broke