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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 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 the heart of the halfbeak, straight. The halfbeak, a small fish (bolobel), is regarded as one who follows his fancy or heart, doing as he pleases. The idiom is applied to persons who are easy-going, sleeping when the mood calls for it, undisturbed by the behavior or opinion of others. |
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> He ate his mother. To marry or have intercourse with the wife of one's brother. There is a potential reciprocation in which money may go from an elder brother in return for food and service from a younger brother. Once established, particularly where the younger couple have children, a cycle of this type may continue after the younger husband has died. Marrying the wife of a deceased younger brother, then, will interrupt such a cycle. Similarly, sexual relations with this woman may jeopardize the cycle. |
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> He's like Ngerechebal Island, which is neither closer to Imeliik nor closer to Ngerekebesang. i.e. He's indecisive or not clearly taking sides. A person who is "on the fence," changeable and indecisive. The saying may also be applied to a partly westernized Palauan. |
