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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| malgosia Newbie Poland Joined 5973 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English | Message 1 of 4 18 July 2008 at 4:57pm | IP Logged |
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In my Master's dissertation I work on idioms in Polish and English and I have to translate English idioms literally. At the moment I have problems with an idiom: "to talk a glass eye to sleep". Does anyone know where does the idiom come from and what is the meaning of it (literally)? "to make the glass eye fall asleep"?, "talk to the glass eye to fall asleep"? Thank you for a reply.
Another question is about the idiom "to give an eye teeth for something" which means: to want to owe something very much. How would you literally translate it? Is it about the canine teeth? Like "I would get rid of my own canine teeth to get it"? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lamanna Newbie Australia Joined 6273 days ago 27 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 4 19 July 2008 at 6:52am | IP Logged |
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Hi malgosia,
When someone is boring you could say... "He could talk a glass eye to sleep", meaning as you've said, make the glass eye fall asleep.... which is an impossible thing to do. :) For "to give an eye teeth for something", it would be either: "to give an eye tooth for something" or "to give eye teeth for something" That one I haven't heard much, the more common one is "to give an arm and leg"... "I would give an arm and a leg for that piece of cake". It's the same thing really, you would give up something you really need in order to get something you really want. Hope that helps. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6080 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 3 of 4 19 July 2008 at 7:26am | IP Logged |
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Quick search on google:
FIRST RESULT: http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/talk+a+glass+ey e+to+sleep.html Idiom: Talk a glass eye to sleep Meaning: Someone who could talk a glass eye to sleep is very boring and repetitive. Category: Body and bodily functions TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6894 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 4 20 July 2008 at 7:55pm | IP Logged |
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http://www.thefreedictionary.com/eye+tooth
Noun 1. eye tooth - one of the four pointed conical teeth (two in each jaw) located between the incisors and the premolars. As far as I can see the following are given as synonyms: canine, canine tooth, cuspid, eyetooth, dogtooth Edited by Hencke on 20 July 2008 at 7:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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