Produced by Markus Brenner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Note: The =heavy-face key-words= are denoted so. HANDBOOK OF GERMAN IDIOMS BY M. B. LAMBERT RICHMOND HILL HIGH SCHOOL, NEW YORK CITY [Illustration] NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1910 COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY PREFACE This collection of German idioms is presented in the hope that it will prove helpful to teachers and students of the language, and that it may contribute in a modest way toward making the sentence rather than the word the unit of treatment in the study and acquisition of the language. The German language is full of idioms, the meaning of which is poorly grasped by the student, because he never becomes liberated from the individual word. The idioms have been compiled in large part from the Muret-Sanders _Encyklopädisches Wörterbuch_, from the Flügel-Schmidt-Tanger _Wörterbuch der Englischen und Deutschen Sprache_, and from Hetzel’s _Wie der Deutsche spricht_. Various considerations prohibit even an approach to completeness. The same considerations forbid the use in most instances of more than one English meaning, although many of the idioms, especially those of everyday conversation, have a variety of finely shaded meanings depending upon the connotation and intonation. Only occasional use has been made of the vast treasury of proverbs and popular quotations in the language. The alphabetical arrangement according to key-words, while open to objections, presents itself on the whole as the most practicable. GERMAN IDIOMS A Wer =A= sagt, muß auch B sagen. In for a penny, in for a pound. =Ab= (= geht ab, gehen ab). Exit (exeunt). Vom 1. Januar =ab= wird die Miete erhöht. From the 1st of January the rent will be raised. Er kommt =ab= und zu. (Cf. Er schreibt =dann= und wann. Er kam =hin= und wieder). He comes now and then. Er ist das =Abbild= (von) seiner Mutter. He is the very image of his mother. Er ist =abgeblitzt=. He was rebuffed. Er =brach= kurz =ab=. He stopped short. Sie sitzen noch auf der =ABC-bank=. They are still beginners. Es =drückt= mir das Herz =ab=. It breaks my heart. Es ist noch nicht aller Tage =Abend=. Don’t crow too soon. He laughs best who laughs last. Es ist ein =Aber= dabei. There is a but in the matter. So lasse ich mich nicht =abfertigen=. I will not be put off like this. Ich =gebe= mich nicht mit solchen Leuten =ab=. I have nothing to do with such people.