pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire

English

Etymology

Calque of French tirer les marrons du feu, which comes from the fable The Monkey and the Cat by Jean de la Fontaine.

Verb

pull someone's chestnuts out of the fire (third-person singular simple present pulls someone's chestnuts out of the fire, present participle pulling someone's chestnuts out of the fire, simple past and past participle pulled someone's chestnuts out of the fire)

1. Synonym of pull someone's bacon out of the fire (“rescue someone, especially at the last moment”)
   • 2006 Oct. 9, Jacob Heilbrunn, "‘Work Hard, Study ... and Keep Out of Politics!’" (book review), New York Times (retrieved 23 Oct 2011):

     By now, however, it's unlikely that even this faithful retainer can once more pull Bush's chestnuts out of the fire.

2. To do another person's difficult work. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Translations

do someone's difficult work

• Catalan: treure les castanyes del foc
• Danish: rage kastanjerne ud af ilden
• Dutch: de kastanjes uit het vuur halen
• Finnish: hoitaa jonkun homma
• French: tirer les marrons du feu (fr)
• German: die Kastanien aus dem Feuer holen (de), aus der Klemme helfen, aus der Patsche helfen
• Greek: βγάζω τα κάστανα από τη φωτιά (vgázo ta kástana apó ti fotiá)
• Italian: cavar le castagne dal fuoco
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rake kastanjene ut av ilden (no)

  Nynorsk: rake kastanjane ut av elden

• Polish: wyciągać kasztany z ognia impf
• Spanish: sacar las castañas del fuego
• Swedish: kratsa kastanjerna ur elden (sv)

See also

• cat's-paw