Czech term
vytloukat klín klínem
Usually suggested translation:
"rob Peter to pay Paul"
But:
If you "drive out a wedge by another wedge",
you will end up with a wedge in
(and nobody else is involved).
If you "rob Peter to pay Paul"
Paul will end up with his money back,
Peter will end up robbed,
and you will end up with your debt paid (you might end up in prison, though).
| 4 +2 | rob Peter to pay Paul |
Prokop Vantuch
|
| 4 | to shif a debt > |
Maria Chmelarova
|
| 3 +1 | nail drives out nail |
Igor Liba
|
| 3 | scrape by |
Pavel Blann
|
| 3 | dig a hole to fill a hole |
vic voskuil
|
PRO (2): Pavel Blann, vic voskuil
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Proposed translations
Czech Republic
Expert in tourism, sports, medical field
Native in: Czech 
Works in: English to Czech, Czech to English, Slovak to English, and 1 more.
rob Peter to pay Paul
See this description:
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/rob Peter to pay Paul
=> to borrow money from someone in order to give to someone else the money that you already owe them.
"Then I'd take out another loan to pay my debts, robbing Peter to pay Paul."
You suggested you would end up with a wedge in. In this case it's the same. You would end up in a debt anyway, except for the fact that you don't owe the money to Paul anymore but to Peter. You're not actually robbing anyone - you're just borrowing money from one person to give it to another person.
(Which seems to be quite a favorite activity in the Czech Republic) :-)
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Note added at 59 mins (2008-04-10 14:17:30 GMT)
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All dictionaries I've checked offer this version as the equivalent for the Czech saying.
Native in: Slovak
Works in: English to Slovak, English to Czech, Slovak to English, and 2 more.
to shif a debt >
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Note added at 43 mins (2008-04-10 14:01:18 GMT)
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shift not shif
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Note added at 1 hr (2008-04-10 14:19:58 GMT)
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also > " úvěr druhým úvěrem"....." brát si další úvěry "
v politike ... " pravici pravicí "...
nail drives out nail
http://pskovgo.narod.ru/idioms.htm
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla72/papers/117-Fedorov_trans-en.pdf
scrape by
Netherlands
European Translations and Proof Reading
Native in: Dutch
Works in: English to Dutch, German to Dutch, Dutch, and 2 more.
dig a hole to fill a hole
(pretty neat soundbite for an opposition party in politics for instance)
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