oude koeien uit de sloot halen
Dutch
editEtymology
editLiterally, “to get old cows out of the ditch”. This originally referred to the removal of cadavers of drowned cows.[1]
Verb
editoude koeien uit de sloot halen
- (intransitive) to bring up long forgotten unpleasant subjects
Usage notes
editUsually preceded by geen to use the verb as a negative. In that case it is similar in meaning to let bygones be bygones.
Conjugation
editConjugation of oude koeien uit de sloot halen: see halen.
References
edit- ^ “Oude koeien uit de sloot halen”, in onzetaal.nl[1], Genootschap OnzeTaal, 2011 May 2, archived from the original on 25 October 2020