Choona Lagana

January 27, 2021

Today’s Hindi idiom (मुहावरा) is:

चूना लगाना।

(Transliteration: Choona lagana.)

Choona laga raha hai!

Literal translation: To apply lime putty.

Figurative meaning: To defraud. To scam. To swindle.

Usage in a sample sentence:

उस दुकानदार ने मुझे ५००० रुपये का चूना लगाया। वोह मुझे बताया था कि यह असली Italian है, लेकिन यह वास्तव में एक सस्ती Chinese copy निकला।

(Transliteration:  Uss dukaandaar ne mujhe 5000 rupaye ka choona lagaya. Woh mujhe bataya tha ki yeh asli Italian hai, lekin yeh vastav mein ek sasti Chinese copy nikla.)

Translation:  That shopkeeper swindled 5000 rupees off me. He told me that this was real Italian, but it turned out to be actually a cheap Chinese copy.

Origins of the idiom: Lime putty is used to hide cracks in the cement wall so that when it is painted over, the wall looks perfectly fine. No one would be able to guess where the cracks were before the putty was applied. The putty covers up for any cracks or unevenness on the surface of walls. What you see is not what you get. So, when we get scammed by a scamster, we idiomatically say that the scamster applied lime putty.