Hydraulics and pneumatics

One entry on this list has left the workshop: auf dem Schlauch stehen. Word for word it is standing on the hose, and the picture explains itself — somebody is treading on the line and wondering why nothing comes out at the other end. German uses it for a moment of slowness in the head: everything needed is there, it simply is not getting through. Ich stehe gerade auf dem Schlauch is what you say when a colleague’s explanation has not landed yet, and in the first person it is friendly and a little self-mocking. Aimed at somebody else, du stehst wohl auf dem Schlauch, it teases and can sting. English has no hose here; it says that someone is slow on the uptake, or that it is drawing a blank. The phrase belongs to talk, never to a maintenance report — which is exactly where a fitter will hear it, standing beside a real one.