to catch flies with one's mouth open
- idiom
- Informal
:
estar despistado
- She was so distracted during the meeting that she almost caught flies with her mouth open.
Examples
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If you catch flies with your mouth open in class, you might miss something important.
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During an important presentation, she began to catch flies with her mouth open and missed the key points.
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He warned his son not to catch flies with his mouth open while crossing the street.
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Don't catch flies with your mouth open during the meeting!
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She was catching flies with her mouth open while daydreaming.
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If you catch flies with your mouth open in class, you might miss something important.
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He warned his son not to catch flies with his mouth open while crossing the street.
Synonyms
1
8.1
Not paying attention because you are thinking about something else
Antonyms
How Inattentive
- Informal
- Informal
4
7.7
43
2.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
catch + fly + with + one's + mouth + open
The phrase creates a clear literal image (having your mouth open so flies could be caught) that maps metaphorically onto carelessness or inattention, so learners who know the component words can often infer the intended meaning. However, the meaning relies on a figurative pragmatic inference rather than straightforward compositional rules and may be language-specific, so it is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
The idiom catch flies with one's mouth open gives a clear picture: imagine someone standing with their mouth open and flies flying in because they are not paying attention. So it means 'not paying attention' or 'daydreaming'.