ottaa lusikka kauniiseen käteen

Finnish

Etymology

Literally, “to take the spoon into the beautiful hand”

Verb

(idiomatic) to swallow one's pride (and humbly do as one is told or supposed to do)

Usage notes

niellä ylpeytensä may be considered a synonym, but ottaa lusikka kauniiseen käteen is a much stronger expression of submitting, giving in or surrendering to a person who has authority.

Conjugation

See ottaa. lusikka is normally in the accusative case (which appears as either the nominative or genitive case depending on the context), but is inflected in the partitive case to express an ongoing or incomplete action or if used in the negative.

Synonyms

niellä ylpeytensä