Əl çəkmək
Literally to pull one's hand away
Means to leave someone alone and stop pestering them, or to give something up
English idiom lay off someone
Example Zəhmət olmasa, məndən əl çək.
Please leave me alone.
An idiom is a phrase you cannot translate word for word. Here are the 25 most common Azerbaijani idioms, ranked by how often you will actually meet them, each with its literal translation, real meaning, the closest English idiom where one exists, and an example sentence with an English translation, so you know what natives actually mean.
Common Azerbaijani idioms are everyday expressions whose meaning cannot be guessed from the individual words. For example, Əl çəkmək literally means "to pull one's hand away" but is used to mean to leave someone alone and stop pestering them, or to give something up. This free page ranks the 25 most common Azerbaijani idioms by how often you meet them, each with its literal translation, meaning, the closest English idiom where one exists, and an example sentence with an English translation.
All 25 idioms, most common first.
Guess the meaning, then tap a card to check.
Idiom list verified as of August 2026.
Əl çəkmək
Literally to pull one's hand away
Means to leave someone alone and stop pestering them, or to give something up
English idiom lay off someone
Example Zəhmət olmasa, məndən əl çək.
Please leave me alone.
Əlindən gəlmək
Literally to come from one's hand
Means to be capable of doing something, to be good at it
English idiom turn one's hand to something
Example Onun əlindən hər iş gəlir, buna görə hamı ondan kömək istəyir.
He can turn his hand to anything, so everyone asks him for help.
Əldən düşmək
Literally to fall from the hand
Means to become completely exhausted
English idiom be dead on one's feet
Example Bütün günü işləyəndən sonra tamam əldən düşmüşdü.
After working all day he was dead on his feet.
Canını sıxmaq
Literally to squeeze someone's soul
Means to bore or annoy someone
English idiom get on someone's nerves
Example Uzun gözləmə canımı sıxdı.
The long wait got on my nerves.
Note The related form canı sıxılmaq means to be bored or feeling low yourself.
Baş çəkmək
Literally to pull a head
Means to call on someone briefly to see how they are
English idiom look in on someone
Example Həftə sonu nənəmə baş çəkdim.
I looked in on my grandmother over the weekend.
Ürəyi yanmaq
Literally for one's heart to burn
Means to feel deep pity or compassion for someone
English idiom one's heart goes out to someone
Example Ac uşaqları görəndə ürəyim yandı.
When I saw the hungry children, my heart went out to them.
Ürəyini boşaltmaq
Literally to empty one's heart
Means to unburden oneself by telling someone one's troubles
English idiom get something off one's chest
Example Bacısına dərdini danışıb ürəyini boşaltdı.
She told her sister her troubles and got it all off her chest.
Cana doymaq
Literally to be sated to the soul
Means to reach the limit of one's patience with something
English idiom have had it up to here
Example Bu səs-küydən cana doymuşam.
I have had it up to here with this noise.
Ürəyi düşmək
Literally for one's heart to fall
Means to be suddenly frightened or startled
English idiom jump out of one's skin
Example Qəfil səs eşidəndə ürəyi düşdü.
When she heard the sudden noise, she jumped out of her skin.
Göz yummaq
Literally to close one's eyes
Means to ignore a fault or a wrongdoing on purpose
English idiom turn a blind eye
Example Müdir onun gecikməsinə göz yumdu.
The manager turned a blind eye to his lateness.
Note With həyata added, həyata göz yummaq is a gentle way of saying that someone has died.
Başını qatmaq
Literally to mix someone's head
Means to distract someone by keeping them occupied with something else
Example Uşağın başını qatmaq üçün ona rəngli karandaşlar verdi.
She gave the child colored pencils to keep him busy.
Ağzından qaçırmaq
Literally to let something escape from one's mouth
Means to blurt out a secret by accident
English idiom let something slip
Example Sirri istəmədən ağzımdan qaçırdım.
I let the secret slip without meaning to.
Qanını qaraltmaq
Literally to blacken someone's blood
Means to spoil someone's mood, to upset or exasperate them
Example Oğlunun tənbəlliyi anasının qanını qaraldıb.
Her son's laziness has worn her down.
Note The form qanı qaralmaq describes feeling gloomy yourself, without anyone to blame.
Cin atına minmək
Literally to mount the demon's horse
Means to suddenly become furious
English idiom fly off the handle
Example Xəbəri eşidən kimi cin atına mindi.
The moment he heard the news, he flew off the handle.
Note Colorful and colloquial, natural in speech but not in formal writing.
Baş sındırmaq
Literally to break one's head
Means to think very hard about a difficult problem
English idiom rack one's brains
Example Bu məsələnin üstündə iki saat baş sındırdım.
I racked my brains over this problem for two hours.
Bir göz qırpımında
Literally in one blink of an eye
Means extremely quickly, in an instant
English idiom in the blink of an eye
Example Tort bir göz qırpımında yox oldu.
The cake vanished in the blink of an eye.
Əl tutmaq
Literally to hold a hand
Means to help someone out, often with money
English idiom lend a hand
Example Çətin günündə qonşular ona əl tutdular.
The neighbors lent him a hand when times were hard.
Note In its literal sense the same phrase simply means to shake hands.
Göz önünə gətirmək
Literally to bring something before the eye
Means to picture something vividly, to imagine or recall it
English idiom call something to mind
Example Onun uşaqlıq illərini göz önünə gətirdi.
She called his childhood years to mind.
Qulaqardına vurmaq
Literally to strike behind the ear
Means to ignore what someone says on purpose
English idiom turn a deaf ear
Example Nə qədər desəm də, xəbərdarlığımı qulaqardına vurdu.
However much I said, he turned a deaf ear to my warning.
Dəridən-qabıqdan çıxmaq
Literally to come out of one's skin and rind
Means to make every possible effort at something
English idiom bend over backwards
Example Qonaqları razı salmaq üçün dəridən-qabıqdan çıxdı.
She bent over backwards to please the guests.
Könlünü almaq
Literally to take someone's heart
Means to soothe someone you have upset and win them round again
English idiom make it up to someone
Example Küsmüşdü, çiçək alıb könlünü aldım.
She was sulking, so I bought flowers and made it up to her.
Burnunu yuxarı tutmaq
Literally to hold one's nose upward
Means to be arrogant, to act superior to everyone else
English idiom put on airs
Example Vəzifə alandan sonra burnunu yuxarı tutmağa başladı.
After he got the post, he started putting on airs.
Canını dişinə tutmaq
Literally to hold one's soul between one's teeth
Means to push through something unpleasant by sheer will
English idiom grit one's teeth
Example İşdən zəhləsi getsə də, canını dişinə tutub axıra qədər çalışdı.
Although he hated the job, he gritted his teeth and worked to the end.
Gözü su içməmək
Literally for one's eye not to drink water
Means to doubt something, to have no faith that it will work out
Example Onun bu işi vaxtında bitirəcəyinə gözüm su içmir.
I have no faith that he will finish this job on time.
Note Almost always used in the negative, with a possessive ending that names the doubter: gözüm su içmir, gözü su içmir.
Dabanına tüpürmək
Literally to spit on one's heel
Means to run off as fast as one can
English idiom take to one's heels
Example İti görən kimi dabanına tüpürüb qaçdı.
The moment he saw the dog, he took to his heels.
Note Colloquial and usually jokey, fine among friends but out of place in writing.
An idiom is a phrase whose meaning is fixed by convention, not built from its words. That is why a word-for-word translation fails: Əl çəkmək comes out as "to pull one's hand away", which makes no sense until you know it means to leave someone alone and stop pestering them, or to give something up.
Learn a few at a time, not a whole list. Pick the ones you keep running into, say them out loud in a real sentence, and you will remember them far longer than by drilling flashcards.
The most reliable way to absorb idioms is to meet them in context, again and again, in things you actually read. Parallel text and audio let you catch an idiom in a real Azerbaijani sentence and check what it means without breaking your reading. That is what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
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The most common Azerbaijani idioms, ranked by everyday frequency, start with Əl çəkmək, Əlindən gəlmək, Əldən düşmək, Canını sıxmaq, Baş çəkmək. Each one means something you could not guess from the words alone, which is exactly why learners have to meet them in context. This page lists 25 of them with meanings and example sentences.
In Azerbaijani, "Əl çəkmək" translates literally as "to pull one's hand away", but it actually means to leave someone alone and stop pestering them, or to give something up. The closest English idiom is "lay off someone". Example: Zəhmət olmasa, məndən əl çək. ("Please leave me alone.")
The Azerbaijani equivalent is "Əl çəkmək", literally "to pull one's hand away". Example: Zəhmət olmasa, məndən əl çək. ("Please leave me alone.")
In Azerbaijani, an idiom is called frazeoloji birləşmə, and a proverb is atalar sözü. A frazeoloji birləşmə is a fixed figurative phrase used inside a sentence, while an atalar sözü (literally "fathers' word") is a complete proverb that stands on its own as folk wisdom.
Idioms are non-compositional: their meaning is fixed by convention, not built from the individual words. Əl çəkmək translates literally as "to pull one's hand away", yet it means to leave someone alone and stop pestering them, or to give something up. Translate word for word and you get nonsense, so idioms have to be learned as whole units.
The fastest way is to meet them in context and reuse them, not to memorize a list. Learn a handful at a time, notice them while reading and listening, and try them in your own sentences. Reading real Azerbaijani with tap-to-translate, the way Lingo7 works, turns every page into idiom practice.