- English translation
With them, a cat becomes a camel and fleas turn into grown men.
- Literal wording
Their cat is a camel, and their fleas are men.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying mocks a habit of exaggeration. It imagines a household where a mere cat is talked up into a camel and pesky fleas are spoken of as grown men, so every trivial thing is inflated far beyond its real size.
Applied to people, it points at anyone whose descriptions cannot be taken at face value because they routinely magnify the minor. The humor lies in the absurd scale of the inflation, which exposes their habit of overstating.
- When it is used
Use it as a pointed comment on other people who habitually blow small matters out of proportion. The plural 'their' frames it as a remark about others, not oneself, who speak of trivial things as though they were enormous.
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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