Today, we’ll be delving into an idiom that I’ve been meaning to write about for quite some time, but only just remembered to jot down on my “to-do” list yesterday. This idiom is the delightful essere agli sgoccioli!
Essere agli sgoccioli
To be almost over / at the end
Imagine when you take a sip from your water bottle and tip it over, only to discover a few drops (sgoccioli) left. In the same way, being “at the drops” in this idiom signifies reaching the end of something, such as a bottle of wine or a person’s life, or the imminent conclusion of an event.
Questa bottiglia di vino è agli sgoccioli! Ne abbiamo un’altra?
This bottle of wine is almost done! Do we have another one?
Mio zio ha il cancro al quarto stadio. Tutti dicono che è agli sgoccioli ormai.
My uncle has stage-four cancer. Everyone says he hasn’t got long.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
