English idioms

Dear teachers and friends,

I'm wondering if there are any idioms in English which can be used to express the following situations:

1) Totally out of his control and against his wishes a man has to suffer consequences of a fight between two other people.

2) A man is unreasonably throwing his anger to (e. g. he's shouting angrily at) a third person while he is indeed angry with the second person.


Thank you very much in advance for your kind help.

Tram Anh

[ruzu27]

Your first question, i.e. 1)

I think he is 'up the creek without a paddle'.

This expression just popped up when reading your question.

ruzu27

[Anglika]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Dear teachers and friends,

I'm wondering if there are any idioms in English which can be used to express the following situations:

1) Totally out of his control and against his wishes a man has to suffer consequences of a fight between two other people.

Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea
Caught between Scylla and Charybdis

2) A man is unreasonably throwing his anger to (e. g. he's shouting angrily at) a third person while he is indeed angry with the second person.

Can't think of anything immediately - If I think of anything, I'll come back.

Thank you very much in advance for your kind help.

Tram Anh

.

[beascarpetta]

Totally out of his control and against his wishes a man has to suffer consequences of a fight between two other people.

I'd go for He was caught between a rock and a hard place.

I'll have to think about the second one though

[mafioso]

Piece of cake,amigo!
The coward's BARKING AT THE WRONG TREE.
Same cowards has also found a SCAPAEGOAT or is it ESCAPEGOAT? Anyway,both are correct. ESCAPEGOATING too sounds appropriate,you can peel off the "e" and it still looks okay. You know,there are other idioms about this nasty habit of venting your anger on someone you are not angry with just to satisfy your urge for revenge or express your dislike on someone you're too chicken to confront. I am sure Euskera or mainstream Spanish has a treasure trove of profane idioms on this and other sorry human slippages .Agur!

[Barb_D]

The psychologists call that "transference" I believe. That's not very idiomatic though. He's made the guy his whipping boy.