肩の荷が下りる

Word by word

shoulder · GEN · load · NOM · comes down

Idiomatic sense

To be relieved of a responsibility that had been weighing on one. The load comes down off the shoulders. What lifts is usually a duty, a worry, or a task one had to see through, not a physical pack.

The moment is the aftermath. The hard thing is over, and the body registers it.

Examples

1. 発表が終わって、肩の荷が下りた。

   Once the talk was over, a weight came off my shoulders.

2. 合格通知が来て、やっと肩の荷が下りた。

   The acceptance arrived, and at last the load was off me.

Equivalents

Marks say how far the other phrase travels with this one. How to read them.

1. exact

   English

   a weight off one's shoulders

   Same picture and the same relief. English often says it as a noun: it was a weight off my shoulders.

2. near

   German

   mir fällt ein Stein vom Herzen

   Relief after worry. The picture is a stone leaving the heart, not a load leaving the shoulders.

3. near

   French

   avoir un poids en moins

   A weight gone. Less of a set scene than the Japanese, and the same feeling.

4. near

   Chinese

   如释重负

   A set phrase for putting down a heavy charge. The image is the load released, without the shoulders being named.

Notes

JMdict records both 下りる and 降りる for this headword, same reading おりる. This entry spells it 下りる. 許可が下りる, of a permit being granted, is a different use of 下りる and should not be folded in.

Sources

• Headword confirmed in JMdict (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0), including the spellings 下りる and 降りる. Wording here is original.