A vest is a sleeveless clothing item that, according to some sources, came to Germany from France in the late 17th century. Telling someone you have a spotless white or clean vest means your conscience is clear, you are not to blame. Since there are no sleeves, you can't have a trick up your sleeve, either!

Fine feathers make fine birds is the equivalent of the German proverb "clothes make the man" — or woman, of course. People tend to judge others by their appearance, so the saying is also used as a reminder, for instance, when parents want to help their child get ready for a job interview. On the other hand, you should never judge a book by its cover!

Literally, the idiom means to "shake something out of your sleeve," which describes an easy task. In English, having something up your sleeve, however, means you have a secret plan or idea. Having an ace up your sleeve works as a German idiom, too: a secret advantage or skill.

The odd German idiom "It's coat or pants to me" means I don't care one way ot another. It appears to go back hundreds of years, to a period when it became fashionable in the 17th century to design and create pants and coats from the same material.

Time to duck and get out of the way if someone yells "Mir platzt gleich der Kragen" (literally, my collar is about to burst), meaning, I've had it, I've had enough. A shirt collar can feel strangling when a person's face and neck get hot in anger.

Some people expect to be treated with kid gloves! In German, the same idiom involves the use of velvet gloves, however, which of course are just as soft. A colorful phrase that has the same meaning involves treating people "like a raw egg."

"Hut," the German word for hat, in this idiom derives from the verb hüten (take care of, watch over, herd animals). If someone warns you to be "auf der Hut," you are being told to be watchful, wary and alert. Protection is key in this image — and it's ingrained in the genes of this this highly vigilant, and furry, meerkat.

If a German says a child grew up "gut behütet," it doesn't mean the girl or boy spent their childhood wearing particularly good hats but that they were sheltered and protected. The parents will likely have been "auf der Hut," just like the meerkat in the previous picture.

Not too long ago, in an era when most men would not have left the house without wearing a hat or cap, they would take them off as a sign of respect in church, in the presence of a lady or their bosses. The German expression "Hut ab" is used to show admiration and respect for another person's actions and has its equivalent in English: hats off!

The phrase "Hut nehmen" means to resign, to step down, pack one's bags, grab one's hat — and leave. People may no longer wear hats as a matter of course, but the idiom is still very much in use, in particular after a person has been fired.

This German saying literally translated as "that goes way beyond my hatband" means to go too far. Its origins are not entirely clear. One version has it that the idiom refers to the alleged medieval practice of ensuring that the stream of water spouting from a village well was no thicker than a hatband. Anything else would have been aggravating and going too far.

After a dressing down, you might feel useless and at fault, and maybe two feet tall, or as the Germans say, "so small with a hat on." The phrase is usually accompanied by using thumb and index finger to indicate exactly how insignificant one feels.

A hat is symbolic of power and social status. Nowadays, people who can literally "bring it all together under a hat" are good at mediating and finding a consensus among, for instance, different people and opinions. In Germany, it is common to say that women who juggle a job, children and a household "bring it all under one hat."

"Das kannst du dir an den Hut stecken!" directly translates as, "You can pin that onto your hat." The expression is used when someone can't be bothered or doesn't care about something, like in "stuff it." It refers to the fact that people used to decorate hats with bits and ends that weren't really valuable.