die Kuh vom Eis holen

to resolve a tricky situation; to sort things out

Origin

From rural life; a cow that strays onto ice stands still and risks freezing in place or breaking through - the farmer must laboriously bring the valuable animal to safety. As an idiom dated by Küpper to around 1965.

Source

Building blocks

Words in this expression

das Eis· ice cream holen· to fetch der Kompromiss· compromise die Kuh· cow vom· from the

Grammar that uses this word

Adjective declension after the definite article (nom./acc.)Adjektivdeklination nach bestimmtem Artikel (Nom./Akk.)
Adjective endings in the dativeAdjektivendungen im Dativ
Future I with 'werden' + infinitiveFutur I mit 'werden' + Infinitiv
anderer / andere / anderes (other, another)anderer / andere / anderes (ander-)
Superlative (am …-sten)Superlativ (am …-sten)
Verb 'schmecken' (to taste good, + dative)Verb 'schmecken' (+ Dativ)

Examples

Mit diesem haben wir die geholt.
With this compromise we got the situation sorted out.