This inquiry explored whether training in translation/interpretation induces a reliance on a ‘vertical’ translation strategy in which the source language text is understood before the message is reformulated. Students of translation/interpreting and untrained bilinguals were given an idiom translation evaluation task with literal (form and meaning) or figurative equivalents (meaning only). Dependent measures covered the time taken to understand the first presented sentence and the precision and speed of evaluating if the second presented sentence was a translation of the first sentence. The groups did not diverge in their speed of reading the first presented sentence but translation verification times diverged by group and translation type: untrained bilinguals were significantly faster at verifying literal than figurative translations whereas trained bilinguals were equally fast for the two types. The pattern of findings is consistent with the view that training in translation promotes a processing-for-meaning-before reformulating, or vertical, translation strategy.