ProverbHub
Arabic · Arabic scriptProverb: Verified

«يِطَلَّعْ مِنِ الزِّبِيبَهْ خَمَّارَهْ»

Meanings

Each meaning is reviewed on its own.

Meaning: Verified
English translation

He turns a single raisin into a whole tavern.

Literal wording

He brings out a tavern from the raisin.

Meaning and lesson

At its core, the image ridicules wild overstatement. Setting a lone raisin beside an entire drinking house, not merely some wine, it pictures someone whose imagination swells a speck of substance into a vast enterprise, so that a matter of no weight is treated as momentous.

The figure also hints at motive, not only at poor judgment. Such inflation is often purposeful: by puffing up a slight occasion, the person manufactures grounds for resentment and a reason to break with, or turn on, another.

When it is used

Fits a person who reacts to a trifling matter as though it were grave, particularly when that reaction looks like a pretext for taking offence or turning against someone. It is a criticism, not a neutral description: aiming it at someone calls them petty or quarrelsome.

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