put one's finger in the dike

put one's finger in the dike
attempt to stem the advance of something undesirable
Origin:
from a story of a small Dutch boy who saved his community from a flood by placing his finger in a hole in a dike

Useful english dictionary. 2012.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • My Daughter the Broad — Studio album by The Frogs Released …   Wikipedia

  • Sophists (The) — The sophists G. B. Kerferd In the fifth century BC the term sophistēs was used in Greece as a name to designate a particular profession, that of certain travelling teachers who went from city to city giving lectures and providing instruction in a …   History of philosophy

  • List of Middle-earth wars and battles — J. R. R. Tolkien s Middle earth fantasy writings include many wars and battles set in the lands of Aman, Beleriand, Númenor, and Middle earth. These are related in his various books such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and The… …   Wikipedia

  • ancient Greek civilization — ▪ historical region, Eurasia Introduction       the period following Mycenaean civilization, which ended in about 1200 BC, to the death of Alexander the Great, in 323 BC. It was a period of political, philosophical, artistic, and scientific… …   Universalium

  • Proto-Human language — The Proto Human language (also Proto Sapiens, Proto World) is the hypothetical most recent common ancestor of all the world s languages. The concept of Proto Human presupposes monogenesis of all recorded spoken human languages. It does not… …   Wikipedia

  • Kind — 1. Ach, dass ich meine armen Kinder so geschlagen, klagte der Bauer, und sie waren des Pfaffen. – Eiselein, 375. 2. Alle Kinder werden mit Weinen geboren. Lat.: Clamabunt E et A quotquot nascuntur ab Eva. (Binder I, 193; II, 497; Seybold, 77.) 3 …   Deutsches Sprichwörter-Lexikon

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”