猫の手も借りたい

Word by word

cat · GEN · paw · even · borrow-want

Idiomatic sense

So short of help, or so busy, that a person would take whatever assistance turned up. The joke is that a cat's paw is no use as a hand, and one would borrow it anyway.

The phrase judges the shortage, not the cat. It is everyday and a little comic, including when the rush is real.

Examples

1. 決算前で、猫の手も借りたいほど人が足りない。

   Before the books close we are so short-staffed we would take help from anyone.

2. 引っ越しの日は、猫の手も借りたいくらい忙しかった。

   On moving day we were desperate for an extra pair of hands.

Equivalents

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

1. near

   German

   jede Hilfe brauchen können

   Says outright that any help would do. There is no animal in it.

2. partial

   English

   to be short-handed

   Names the shortage, and leaves out the joke that even a useless paw would do.

3. partial

   Chinese

   忙得不可开交

   A set way to say one is far too busy. It does not ask for help.

4. partial

   French

   être débordé

   Overwhelmed by the amount of work, not specifically short of people.

Notes

借りたい is the want-to form of 借りる. The idiom stays in that form. People do say the phrase on its own, as a predicate, when the busyness is already the topic. The fuller pattern, with ほど or くらい, is the one to copy.

猫の手を借りたい, with を and no も, is a different sentence. It means someone wants to borrow an actual paw.

Sources

• Headword and reading confirmed in JMdict (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0; sequence 1845600 was the entry opened). The sense tag there is an idiomatic expression with an i-adjective pattern. Wording, examples, and equivalents here are original and are not a JMdict extract.