гадать на кофейной гуще

• ГАДАТЬ НА КОФЕЙНОЙ ГУЩЕ <НА БОБАХ> coll, usu. disapprov

[VP; subj: human; usu. this WO]

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⇒ to make guesses or suppositions that are totally without foundation or are based on insufficient knowledge, information etc:

- X гадал на кофейной гуще{{}}≈ X was taking shots in the dark;

- X was taking <making> wild guesses;

- [in limited contexts] X was reading tea leaves,

○ ГАДАНИЕ НА КОФЕЙНОЙ ГУЩЕ <НА БОБАХ> [NP] = shots in the dark; wild guesses; guesswork; [in limited contexts] reading tea leaves.

     ♦ Зачем гадать на кофейной гуще, когда можно взять справочник и посмотреть? Why take wild guesses when you can just look up the facts in a reference book?

     ♦ [author's usage] Как известно, наши хозяева умели предсказывать будущее, пользуясь не кофейной гущей, а научными методами... (Мандельштам 2). As we all know, our rulers were able to foretell the future not by reading tea leaves, but with the aid of "scientific principles"... (2a).