måla fan på väggen

Swedish

Etymology

Literally, "paint the Devil on the wall".

Idiom

måla fan på väggen

  1. to assume the worst is going to happen
    A to B: "I am going to forget what to say and everyone is going to laugh at me."
    B to A: "Do not paint the devil on the wall."
  2. to present a situation as being worse than it actually is
    Hon målade verkligen fan på väggen när hon kallade sin partikamrat fascist.
    She really went too far when she called her fellow party member a fascist.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.