as cool as a cucumber
calm, confident
TRANSLATION
cool as a cucumber = die Ruhe selbst sein
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
“Her standing ovation was well deserved and when asked how she remains COOL AS A CUCUMBER on the big stage, she replied “I pretend no one’s watching!’”
CMR dot com
—
“Despite my intentions of being a COOL-AS-A-CUCUMBER parent, the birth of my first child, now 18, transformed me into a maternal tossed salad.”
The Huffington Post
Did you
know?
as cool as a cucumber
idiom
- very calm or very calmly, especially when this is surprising
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
—
Comparisons, or similes as they are called in linguistics, are an excellent way to spice up any language. While not spicy itself, the cucumber is cool to the touch and thus offers a figurative way to describe someone who is cool, as in calm, composed, and confident.
The phrase was first recorded in a poem by the British poet John Gay ‘New Song on New Similies’ in 1732: “Cool as a cucumber could see the rest of womankind”
Here are a few examples which are intentionally amusing or ironic:
- as exciting as watching paint dry
- as happy as a dog with two tails
- as smooth as a baby’s bottom
- as snug as a bug in a rug
and the English language seems to have a thing about uselessness:
- as useless as cat at a dog show
- as useless as an ashtray on a motorbike
- as useless as a chocolate teapot
- as useless as Captain Hook’s second glove
—
SYNONYMS
self-assured, self-confident, even-keeled, sure of oneself, well balanced, levelheaded, coolheaded, imperturbable, unruffled, unshakable, unflappable, unflustered
—
Practice OWAD in an English conversation, say something like:
“Monika was AS COOL AS A CUCUMBER during her presentation to the board of management.”
—
VIELEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:
https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3
Paul Smith
