oude koeien uit de sloot halen

Dutch

Etymology

Literally, “to get old cows out of the ditch”. This originally referred to the removal of cadavers of drowned cows.[1]

Verb

oude koeien uit de sloot halen

  1. (intransitive) to bring up long forgotten unpleasant subjects

Usage notes

Usually preceded by geen to use the verb as a negative. In that case it is similar in meaning to let bygones be bygones.

Conjugation

Conjugation of oude koeien uit de sloot halen: see halen.

References

  1. ^ “Oude koeien uit de sloot halen”, in onzetaal.nl‎[1], Genootschap OnzeTaal, 2 May 2011, archived from the original on 25 October 2020
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