to watch paint dry
3
7.8
- idiom
- Informal
:
ver secar la pintura
- Personally, I'd rather watch paint dry.
- as exciting as watching paint dry
- I would rather watch paint dry
I mean, to us as adults, I'd rather watch paint dry.
- I mean, to us as adults, I'd rather watch paint dry.
- I'd watch you watch paint dry, but like you wouldn't though.
Examples
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Yeah, the video was about as exciting as watching paint dry.
Blog text (25) -
It's akin to watching paint dry.
Blog text (21) -
'Cause, man, we're over here watching paint dry, okay?
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And I would rather watch paint dry.
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You want me to watch paint dry?
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Do you want to watch paint dry?
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It's like watching paint dry.
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It was like watching paint dry.
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- Well, all in all it's about as interesting as watching paint dry, but I met you, that's the important thing.
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I'd rather sit in silence than watch paint dry.
Antonyms
How Boring
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase's figurative meaning ('extremely boring') follows directly from the literal image of attentively watching paint dry, which is an obviously tedious activity; a learner who knows 'watch', 'paint' and 'dry' can infer this comparison. Although idiomatic in use, the metaphor is straightforward and cross-linguistically recognizable, so the overall sense is immediately accessible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The idiom watch paint dry comes from the very slow, dull act of watching wet paint slowly dry. So, because that is such a boring thing to do, the phrase now means 'to do something extremely boring'.