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> Nibbling like a rat. Activity that slowly destroys another person or institution. Generally applied to verbal actions; spreading malicious gossip; a speech loaded with subtle insults. However, it can be applied to wider behavior such as economic behavior that destroys the resources of the country: killing fish by dynamite; cutting forests without planting |
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> Like making a whirlpool in Modelab's water tub. Probably having reference to a folk tale, this saying is applied to any state of general social confusion. Some worldly Palauans used it with reference to the state of world affair |
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> It's as if we were walking on the blade of a knife. i.e., we're treading on dangerous ground; if we make one wrong move, we're finished. |
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> Like taro, though the leaves are tall, still immature. Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is mature only when the leaves produced by the plant are small. When the plant produces its largest leaves the tuber in the ground is still quite small. The saying may be applied to a person who, while yet young and inexperienced, is proud and boastful. |
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> Like his father, for he ate his father's premasticated food. Applied to a child by adoption, with the implication that the adopted child resembles his adoptive father |
