Herps in commonly used expressions

[Thomas Reich]

After too excessive "salamandering", you'll be pissed as a newt, but "don't be a frog" and don't cry crocodile tears if you are in the night of the lizards afterwards. You'll have "to swallow the toad" and there's no need to force any snake into a bottle, despite the calls of bombina...

Have a nice weeked.

[Dominik Hauser]

In the swabian south we have lots of, mostly negative associations with the word "grotten" which comes from an old word for toad.
So there is grottenfalsch (completely wrong), grottenschlecht (real bad), grottenhässlich (real ugly).
"Es hagelt Grotten" means "it hails toads", if there comes very big/much hailstones from the sky.
"Grotten Wetter" for bad weather (so a little bit true )

[Peter Oefinger]

flat out like a lizard drinking"

What does that mean?

[Paul Lambourne]

Peter

Flat out like a lizard drinking means to be very busy.. its a play on the phrase flat out, ie to literally lie stretched out on the ground, the simile being like a monitor lizard drinking(allegedly)..... and the colloquial phrase "flat out" to mean being very busy.


Cheers Paul

[Peter Oefinger]

Paul, tht's really cool because it is absolutely ceaptic for an non-native speaker...

[Bobby Bok]

A few additions from Dutch:

"Er schuilt een addertje onder het gras" -> there's a small adder hiding beneath the grass/there's a catch.
"Verkikkerd zijn op..." -> to be totally in love with.../kikker = frog.
"Een kikker in de keel hebben" -> to have a frog in the throat.