The Europeans are sitting on their heels

This one was heard on the HBO MAX show, Real Time With Bill Maher. Byron Donalds, a GOP candidate for Governor of Florida, was talking about the lack of participation by Europe in the Iran war, and he said, “The Europeans are sitting on their heels.” This is a congruent conflation of “sitting on your hands” and “cooling your heels”, both referring to waiting with no action. This is what I call a “body parts mixup” (in this case, hands and heels). There are lots of these and you can find them on my website. Also, the word “heel” seems to be misused a lot. Some other malaphors I have posted include “fresh off the heels”, chomping at the heels”, “on your back heels”, and “they always keep you on your heels”. https://malaphors.com/2026/06/15/fresh-off-the-heels/ https://malaphors.com/2024/04/17/chomping-at-our-heels/ https://malaphors.com/2023/05/15/they-always-keep-you-on-your-heels/ https://malaphors.com/2020/07/23/on-your-back-heels/

Kudos to Steve Messinger for spotting this nicely formed malaphor.