- English translation
Like snot: revolting, and there's no getting a grip on it.
- Literal wording
Like snot: it disgusts, and it does not let itself be held.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying likens someone to nasal mucus, a substance that repels anyone who sees it and also slips away from any attempt to grab it. The target is a person who is unpleasant to be around and at the same time evasive, so you can neither stomach them nor get a firm hold on them.
The insult stacks two failures: there is no comfort in keeping the person near, and no way to get a grip on them. Context decides whether that second clause stresses slippery, evasive character or simply someone impossible to deal with, whose handling only makes things messier.
- When it is used
A coarse, mocking put-down aimed at a person who is both off-putting and impossible to manage or pin down. Applied to someone, it is harsh and insulting, suited only to informal talk among intimates, never polite or formal company, where the disgust imagery would give offence.
- Register
- Colloquial, with deliberately crude bodily imagery
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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