“Go around the houses”in other languages
Do something in a needlessly roundabout way.
English
Danish
Japanese
EnglishDanishJapaneseSame idea, different pictures
English walks all the way around the block. Danish crosses the stream to fetch water, at gå over åen efter vand, when it could have drawn it right where it stood.
Japanese puts in eye drops from the second floor, nikai kara megusuri, so indirect that it barely works at all.
More sayings in other languages
- Rub salt in the wound
- Sell someone a bill of goods
- Send someone packing
- Set one's sights on something
- Shoot oneself in the foot
- Have a short fuse
- Shoulder to shoulder
- Sit on one's hands
- Sit on the fence