bolt from the blue

bolt from the blue

English

Etymology

Suggesting a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

Noun

bolt from the blue (plural bolts from the blue)

1. A complete surprise; something totally unexpected.

   His death came as a bolt from the blue.

   Coordinate terms: act of God, accident

Translations

something totally unexpected

Bulgarian: като гръм от ясно небе (kato grǎm ot jasno nebe), изневиделица (bg) (iznevidelica) Chinese: Mandarin: 晴天霹靂／晴天霹雳 (zh) (qíngtiānpīlì), 突如其來／突如其来 (zh) (tūrúqílái, túrúqílái) Czech: blesk z čistého nebe Danish: som et lyn fra en klar himmel (like a lightning bolt out of a clear sky) Finnish: salama kirkkaalta taivaalta (literally “(like) a lightning bolt out of a clear sky”) German: Blitz aus heiterem Himmel Greek: κεραυνός εν αιθρία m (keravnós en aithría) Hebrew: כְּרַעַם בְּיוֹם בָּהִיר‎ (he) (kerá'am beyóm bahír) (like thunder on a clear day) Hungarian: derült égből villámcsapás Icelandic: eins og þruma úr heiðskíru lofti, eins og skrattinn úr sauðaleggnum, sem reiðarslag, eins og þruma úr heiðríkju, öllum að óvörum Indonesian: petir di siang bolong Japanese: 青天の霹靂 (ja) (せいてんのへきれき, seiten no hekireki) Korean: 청천 벽력과 같이 (cheongcheon byeongnyeokgwa gachi) Latvian: kā pērkons no skaidrām debesīm, kā sniegs uz galvas Lithuanian: lyg perkūnas iš giedro dangaus Polish: grom z jasnego nieba m Portuguese: imprevisto (pt) m Romanian: din senin Russian: гром среди́ я́сного не́ба (ru) (grom sredí jásnovo néba) (thunder from a clear sky), как снег на́ голову (ru) (kak sneg ná golovu) (like snow from the blue) Scottish Gaelic: clach às an adhar Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: као гром из ведра неба Roman: kao grom iz vedra neba Spanish: como rayo caído del cielo Swedish: som en blixt från klar himmel (sv) (like a lightning bolt out of a clear sky)

See also

• out of nowhere
• out of the blue
• turn up for the book