to buy straw hat in winter
- idiom
- Informal
:
tomar decisiones inapropiadas
- Investing heavily in a declining market is like buying a straw hat in winter.
Examples
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Launching a summer product in December is just buying straw hat in winter.
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You shouldn't buy straw hat in winter if you want your efforts to be successful.
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Don't buy straw hat in winter!
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Why would you buy straw hat in winter?
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Investing heavily in a declining market is like buying a straw hat in winter.
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Launching a summer product in December is just buying a straw hat in winter.
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You shouldn't buy straw hat in winter if you want your efforts to be successful.
Synonyms
To support a decision that will hurt you or your group
How Foolish
- Informal
37
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
buy + straw + hat + in + winter
The literal constituents ('buy', 'straw hat', 'in winter') clearly convey the image of an ill-timed, impractical purchase, so a learner who knows the words will grasp the literal situation and likely infer that it is unwise. However, the extension from that specific scenario to the general meaning 'make unwise or ill-timed decisions' is a pragmatic/metaphorical inference rather than a directly compositional meaning, so prior exposure or contextual explanation is often needed.
Etymology
Buy straw hat in winter gives a clear picture of someone buying a light straw hat when it is cold and useless. So it means doing something 'unwise' or at the wrong time.