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Background:
Russians use this saying to describe extreme heat conditions in "Banya" when it is becoming almost unbearable.

Russian Мои уши в трубочку сворачиваются?

English literal translation My ears are curling into tubes

Question:
What is English idiom that could be used in sauna or steam room to describe that it has gotten so hot, that it feels like your ears are curling into a tube?

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    Too long in damp/wet (bath?) - "I feel like I'm turning into a prune".
    – Dɑvïd
    Jan 16, 2014 at 21:18
  • I thought word prune is associated with drying up and not with getting too wet or too hot?
    – Vladimir Oselsky
    Jan 16, 2014 at 21:22
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    @SaUce It's a reference to the fingers... See here.
    – Elliott Frisch
    Jan 16, 2014 at 21:25
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    "I'm pruning up" is a shorter alternate phrasing I've heard. But regardless, you would not typically refer to the ears in such a situation - the reference is meant to be to the fingers or toes (you'd get odd looks if you said your ears were turning into prunes or your ears were pruning up).
    – Doc
    Jan 16, 2014 at 21:35
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    First of all, that's actually an idiom meaning something like "listening to this is unbearable". Second of all, "мои уши в трубочьку заварачиваються" is not Russian. Russian would be "мои уши в трубочку заворачиваются". So what you have there is someone making fun of Russian in an untranslatable manner, or at least in a manner that can be mimicked in a great many ways, all of them equally correct.
    – RegDwigнt
    Jan 16, 2014 at 21:37

1 Answer 1

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I've been in hot saunas and steam rooms and I've never thought that my ears are curling into tubes or heard an expression like it.

"It's hotter than hell here" is what folks might say.

In the UK they may say "It ain't half hot in here" for some unknown reason.

I've never heard Kris' "so hot the hens are laying hard-boiled eggs" but I like it.

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  • I have heard "It's hotter than hell here" before, if no-one else submit any idioms I will accept that as answer. Any ideas if there any sayings that come from "sweat lodges" that might be more related to original setting?
    – Vladimir Oselsky
    Jan 17, 2014 at 17:12
  • Hotter than white man's hell? There probably are but i don't know.
    – Martin F
    Jan 17, 2014 at 17:14

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