A few German idioms

My European journey will soon take me to Austria, where German is the spoken language (although, as you might imagine, the dialect and vocabulary differs from the German spoken in Germany itself). While brushing up on my German, I came upon some interesting German idioms – some of which have similar sayings in English, but others are a little odd for English speakers to comprehend. Here are some examples!

Schwein haben – literally “to have a pig” – means “to be lucky”

Blech reden – literally “to talk brass” – means “to talk nonsense”

auf 180 sein – literally “to be on 180” – means “to throw a fit” or “to be in a rage”

auf die Palme bringen – literally “to drive (someone) up a palm tree” – means “to make (somebody) angry” (a similar English idiom would be “to drive (someone) up the wall”)

seinen Hut nehmen – literally “to take one’s hat” – means “to quit” or “to resign”

den Löffel abgeben – literally “to hand over the spoon” – means “to die” (a similar English idiom would be “to bite the dust”)