French Idioms and Proverbs

Il ne sait ni A ni B = He does not know B from a bull’s foot; He cannot read; He is a perfect ignoramus.

Être marqué à l’A = To stand high in the estimation of others.

[This expression is supposed to have originated in the custom of stamping French coin with different letters of the alphabet. The mark of the Paris Mint was an “A,” and its coins were supposed to be of a better quality than those stamped at provincial towns. But as this custom only began in 1418 by command of the Dauphin, son of Charles VI., and as the saying was known long previous, it is more probable that its origin is to be sought in the pre-eminence that A has always held in all Aryan languages, and that the French have borrowed it from the Romans. Compare Martial, ii. 57, and our A i, at Lloyd’s.]

Tout est à l’abandon = Everything is at sixes and sevens, in utter neglect, in confusion.

[Also: Tout va à la dérive.]

*Petite pluie abat grand vent = A little rain lays much dust; Often quite a trifle calms a torrent of wrath.

[Compare: “Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta
Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt.” Vergil, Georgics, iv. 86-7.]

Abattre de l’ouvrage = To get through a great deal of work.

Être aux abois = To be reduced to the last extremity; To be at bay.

[Compare Boileau: “Dès que j’y veux rêver, ma veine est aux abois.”]

*Abondance de biens ne nuit pas = Store is no sore; One cannot have too much of a good thing.

Parler avec abondance = To speak fluently.

Parler d’abondance = To speak extempore.

Il abonde dans mon sens = He is entirely of the same opinion as I am; He has come round to my opinion.

Il a l’abord rude, mais il s’adoucit bientôt = He receives you roughly at first, but that soon passes off.

A (or, De) prime abord = At first sight; At the first blush.

Les pourparlers n’ont pas abouti = The preliminary negotiations led to nothing.

*“Les absents ont toujours tort” = When absent, one is never in the right.

“When a man’s away,
Abuse him you may.”

[Néricault-Destouches, L’obstacle imprévu, i. 6.]

L’homme absurde est celui qui ne change jamais = The wise man changes his opinion—the fool never.

[Barthélemy, Palinode. 1832.]

Il est avec le ciel des accommodements = One can arrange things with heaven.

[Compare Molière, Tartufe, iv. 5: “Le ciel défend, de vrai, certains contentements,
Mais on trouve avec lui des accommodements.”
The scene in which Orgon, hidden beneath the table, learns Tartufe’s hypocrisy.]

Un méchant accommodement est mieux que le meilleur procès = A bad arrangement is better than the best lawsuit.

Je l’accommoderai comme il faut = I will give him a good hiding.

Il s’accommode de tout = He is satisfied with everything; He is easy to please.

D’accord = Granted.

Accordez mieux vos flûtes, si vous voulez réussir = You must agree better among yourselves if you wish to succeed.

[Generally in bad sense. “Mettez, pour me jouer, vos flûtes mieux d’accord.”—Molière, L’Etourdi, i. 4.]

S’accorder comme chien et chat = To live a cat and dog life.

Chose accoutumée n’est pas fort prisée = Familiarity breeds contempt.

[The Latin version of a sentence in Plutarch’s Morals runs: “Nimia familiaritas contemptum parit.”

Fais feste au chien, il te gastera ton habit.
“Jamais trop compagnon à nul ne te feras
Car bien que moins de joye moins d’ennuy tu auras.”]

Un homme qui se noie s’accroche à tout = A drowning man catches at a straw.

Il a accroché sa montre (pop.) = He has “popped” his watch.

[Other popular synonyms are the following:—

Il a mis sa montre au clou (pop.) = His watch is up the spout.

J’ai porté ma montre chez ma tante (pop.) = My watch is at my uncle’s.]

Acheter à vil prix = To buy dirt cheap, for a mere song.

Acheter chat en poche = To buy a pig in a poke.

Acheter par francs et vendre par écus = To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest; To sell at a high profit.

C’est un voleur achevé = He is an arrant thief.

La pierre d’achoppement = The stumbling-block.

*Le bien mal acquis ne profite jamais = Ill-gotten gains benefit no one; Cheats never prosper; Ill got, ill spent.

Faire quelque chose par manière d’acquit = To do something for form’s sake, perfunctorily.

[This is a shortened form of faire quelque chose pour l’acquit de sa conscience = to do something to satisfy one’s conscience.]

Donner l’acquit = To break (at billiards).

Pour acquit = Received (on bills).

Faire acte de présence = To put in an appearance.

Sans adieu = I shall not say good-bye; I shall see you again soon.

[“Adieu” is shortened from “Je vous recommande à la grâce de Dieu.” Comp. “Sans adieu, chevalier, je crois que nous nous reverrons bientôt.”—Lesage.]

Le trait est arrivé à son adresse = The shaft (or, arrow) hit the mark; He took the hint.

Vous vous adressez mal; Vous vous adressez bien (ironic.) = You have come to the wrong person; You have mistaken your man.

*Advienne que pourra = Happen what may.

Cela fera parfaitement l’affaire = That will do capitally; That will suit down to the ground.

C’est son affaire = That is his business, his look-out.

Ça, c’est mon affaire = That is my business; It is no business of yours.

Il est sûr de son affaire = He will pay for it; He will catch it.

Je ne dis pas mes affaires aux autres = I do not tell others my plans (or business); I keep my concerns to myself.

J’entends votre affaire = I see what is to be done for you.

Ils parlent affaires = They are talking business.

Ils parlent boutique = They are talking shop.

C’est une triste affaire = It is a sad business.

S’attirer une mauvaise affaire = To get into a mess, scrape.

Quand on a de l’esprit, on se tire d’affaire = When one has brains, one gets out of any difficulty.

[Distinguish between se tirer and s’attirer.]

Si quelque affaire t’importe, ne la fais pas par procureur = If you want a thing done, do it yourself.

L’affaire a été chaude = It was warm work (referring to a fight).

Une affaire d’honneur = A duel.

Où sont mes affaires? = Where are my things?

Les affaires ne vont pas (ne marchent pas) = Trade is dull, slack.

Je suis dans les affaires = I am in business.

[“Les affaires? C’est bien simple, c’est l’argent des autres.”—Alex. Dumas fils, La Question d’Argent, ii. 7.]

Mêlez-vous de vos affaires = Mind your own business.

Avoir affaire = To be occupied.

Avoir affaire à quelqu’un = To have to speak to (to deal with) a person.

[Sometimes as a threat:

Il aura affaire à moi = He will have to deal with me.]

Avoir affaire de quelqu’un = To need a person.

[“J’ai affaire de vous, ne vous éloignez pas.”]

Avoir son affaire = To have what suits one. J’ai mon affaire = I have found what I want. J’ai votre affaire = I have got the very thing for you. Il aura son affaire (ironic.) = He will catch it.

C’est toute une affaire = It is a serious matter; It means a lot of bother (or, trouble).

C’est une affaire faite = It is as good as done.

Son affaire est faite = He is a dead man (of one dying); He is done for; He is a ruined man.

Faire son affaire = (of oneself) To succeed. Il fait tout doucement son affaire = He is getting on slowly but surely.
(Of others) To punish. S’il le rencontre, il lui fera son affaire = If he meets him he will give it to him, will “do” for him.

Il a fait ses affaires dans les vins = He made his money in the wine trade.

J’en fais mon affaire = I will take the responsibility of the matter; I will see to it; I will take it in hand.

Vous avez fait là une belle affaire (ironic.) = You have made a pretty mess of it.

Une affaire de rien = A mere nothing, a trifle.

Il est hors d’affaire = He is out of danger.

Être au dessous de ses affaires, être au dessus de ses affaires (ironic.) = To be unable to meet one’s liabilities, to be unsuccessful.

Quelle affaire! En voilà une affaire! (ironic.) = What a to-do! What a row about nothing!

La belle affaire! = Is that all? (i.e. it is not so difficult or important as you seem to think).

Il n’y a point de petites affaires = Every trifle is of importance.

Ceux qui n’ont point d’affaires s’en font = Those who have no troubles invent them; Idle people make business for themselves.

Les affaires sont les affaires = Business is business; One must be serious at work.

Ce scandale sera l’affaire de huit jours = That scandal will be a nine days’ wonder.

Dieu nous garde d’un homme qui n’a qu’une affaire = God save us from the man of one idea.

[Because he is always talking of it, and tires every one. Compare “Beware of the man of one book.”]

Chacun sait ses affaires = Every one knows his own business best.

*A demain les affaires sérieuses = I will not be bothered with business to-day; Time enough for business to-morrow.

[The saying of Archias, governor of Thebes, on receiving a letter from Athens warning him of the conspiracy of Pelopidas; he would not even open the letter. Soon after, the conspirators rushed in and murdered him and his friends as they were feasting.]

Il vaut mieux avoir affaire à Dieu qu’à ses saints = It is better to deal with superiors than subordinates.

[Two quotations from La Fontaine are proverbial:— “On ne s’attendait guère
A voir Ulysse en cette affaire.”
La Tortue et les deux Canards.

“Le moindre grain de mil
Serait bien mieux mon affaire.”
Le Coq et la Perle.]

*Ventre affamé n’a point d’oreilles = A hungry man will not listen to reason.

[La Fontaine, Fables, ix. 18.]

Défense d’afficher = Stick no bills.

C’est un homme qui s’affiche = He is a man who tries to get talked about (generally in a disparaging sense).

[Être affiché is also said of a man who has been “posted” at his club.]

Faire affront à quelqu’un = To shame some one in public.

Le fils fait affront à sa famille = The son is a disgrace to his family.

Boire (essuyer or avaler) un affront = To pocket an insult.

Être à l’affût = To be watching for a favourable opportunity; To be on the look-out. (See Aguets.)

Il est entre deux âges = He is middle-aged.

Il est président d’âge = He is chairman by seniority.

Le bas âge = Infancy.

Le bel âge = Childhood; youth.

[Some idea is generally understood after le bel âge. Thus “childhood” is not always the right translation. For an author le bel âge would be after thirty, for a politician later still, and so on. Chicaneau, in Racine’s Plaideurs, calls sixty le bel âge pour plaider (i. 7).]

La fleur de l’âge = The prime of life.

Le moyen âge = The Middle Ages.

Il s’agit de... = The question is...; The point is...

Il s’agit de votre vie = Your life is at stake.

Il ne s’agit pas de cela = That is not the point.

Il s’agit bien de cela (ironic.) = That is quite a secondary consideration.

Qui s’agite s’enrichit = If you wish to get rich, you must work (hustle); No pains, no gains.

Même à travers l’agonie la passion dominante se fait voir = The ruling passion is strong in death.

[“Elle a porté ses sentiments jusqu’à l’agonie.”—Bossuet. “And you, brave Cobham! to the latest breath
Shall feel your ruling passion strong in death.”
Pope, Moral Essays, i. 262.]

Il est aux aguets = He is on the watch; He is in ambush. (See Affût.)

*Un peu d’aide fait grand bien = Many hands make light work.

Bon droit a besoin d’aide = Even a good cause needs support.

*Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera = God helps those who help themselves.

[La Fontaine, Fables, vi. 18, Le Chartier embourbé, copying Régnier, Sat. xiii.:

“Aydez vous seulement et Dieu vous aydera.”

Lat.: Dii facientes adjuvant.

Æschylus, Persae, 742: Σπεύδοντι σαυτῷ χῶ θεὸς ξυνάψεται.

Sophocles, Camicii, frag. 633, in Dindorf’s edition: Οὐκ ἐστι τοῖς μή δρῶσι σύμμαχος Τύχη.

Another Greek saying was: Σύν, Αθηνᾷ καὶ χείρα κίνει = With Minerva on your side, yet use your own hand.

Cromwell is reported to have said at the battle of Dunbar: “Trust in God, but keep your powder dry.”

The Basques say: “Quoique Dieu soit bon ouvrier, il veut qu’on l’aide.”]

De fil en aiguille = Bit by bit; One thing leading to another.

[“De propos en propos et de fil en eguille.”—Régnier, Sat. xiii.]

Raconter de fil en aiguille = To tell the whole matter from the beginning.

Disputer sur la pointe d’une aiguille = To raise a discussion on a subject of no importance; To split hairs.

*Chercher une aiguille dans une botte de foin = To look for a needle in a bundle (bottle) of hay.

A dur âne dur aiguillon = In dealing with obstinate natures one must use severe measures.

Il en a dans l’aile = He is winged (hurt).

Le ministère a du plomb dans l’aile = The ministry is nearing its end, is winged.

Il ne bat plus que d’une aile = He is almost ruined; He is on his last legs.

Voler de ses propres ailes = To act (or, shift) for oneself.

J’en tirerai pied ou aile = I will get something out of it.

[Idiom derived from carving a bird—to get a leg or a wing off it.]

C’est la plus belle plume de son aile (or, le plus beau fleuron de sa couronne) = It is the finest gem of his crown.

*Qui aime bien châtie bien = Spare the rod and spoil the child.

[Proverbs xiii. 24.]

Aimer quelqu’un comme la prunelle de ses yeux = To love somebody like the apple of one’s eye.

Quand on n’a pas ce que l’on aime il faut aimer ce que l’on a = If you cannot get crumb you had best eat crust.

[This sentence is found in a letter from Bussy Rabutin to Madame de Sévigné, May 23, 1667.

“Quoniam non potest id fieri quod vis, id velis quod possit.”—Terence, Andria, ii. 1, 6. “When things will not suit our will, it is well to suit our will to things.”—Arab proverb. “Let not what I cannot have
My peace of mind destroy.”
Colley Cibber, The Blind Boy.]

*Qui aime Bertrand, aime son chien = Love me, love my dog.

[“Qui me amat, amat et canem meum.”—S. Bernard, In Fest. S. Mich. Serm., i. sec. 3.]

*Qui aime bien, tard oublie = True love dies hard.

Qui m’aime me suive = Peril proves who dearly loves.

[Words attributed to Philippe VI. when at a Council during his war with Flanders, the Connétable de Châtillon alone stood by him, saying all times were suitable to the brave.]

En plein air; Au grand air = In the open air.

Avoir toujours le pied en l’air = To be always on the go.

Il parle en l’air = He talks without thinking of what he is saying, at random, not seriously.

Je vais prendre l’air du bureau = I am just going to look in at the office.

Prendre un air de feu = To go near the fire for a few minutes to warm oneself.

A votre air on ne vous donnerait pas vingt-cinq ans = From your looks I should take you for less than five-and-twenty.

Vivre de l’air du temps = To live upon nothing (i.e. to eat very little).

Elle a quelque chose de votre air = She takes after you; She looks somewhat like you.

Il a un faux air d’avocat = He looks something like a barrister.

Cela en a tout l’air = It looks uncommonly like it.

Il a un air (or, l’air) comme il faut = He has a very gentlemanly manner.

C’est de l’algèbre pour lui = It is Greek to him.

[“C’est de l’hébreu pour moi.”—Molière, L’Étourdi, iii. 3.]

Chercher une querelle d’Allemand = To pick a quarrel about nothing, without rhyme or reason.

[This saying has been accounted for as follows:—During the thirteenth century there lived in Dauphiné a very powerful family of the name of Alleman. They were bound together by close ties of relationship; and if any one attacked one member of the clan, he had the whole to reckon with. From the vigour with which they resented any wrong, no matter how slight, arose the expression Une querelle d’Alleman. See M. Jules Quicherat’s article on La famille des Alleman in the Revue historique de la noblesse, Part vi.]

*Tant va la cruche à l’eau qu’à la fin elle se casse = The pitcher that often goes to the well gets broken at last.

[This has been travestied: Tant va la cruche à l’eau qu’à la fin elle s’emplit. The Germans have an equivalent: Der Krug geht so lange zum Brunnen, bis er bricht.]

*Doucement va bien loin = Fair and softly goes far; Slow and sure wins the race.

[The Italian equivalent is: Chi va piano va sano e va lontano. “Qui trop se hâte en cheminant
En beau chemin se fourvoye souvent.”

“On en va mieux quand on va doux.”—La Fontaine, Les Cordeliers de Catalogne.]

Il y allait du bonheur de ma famille = The happiness of my family was at stake.

Ce jeune homme ira loin = That young man will make his way in the world, has a future before him.

Au pis aller = Should the worst come to the worst.

Un pis aller = A makeshift.

Aller son petit bonhomme de chemin = To jog along quietly.

Cela va tout seul = There is no difficulty in the way.

Cela va sans dire = That is a matter of course; It stands to reason.

Cela va de soi = That follows naturally.

Il ne reviendra pas, allez! = Depend upon it, he will not return!

Va pour mille francs! = Done! I’ll take £40.

Elle le fait aller = She makes him do what she likes.

Le rouge va bien aux brunes = Red suits dark women well.

Allons! = Come, now!

Allons donc! = You are joking.

“Il n’est bois si vert qui ne s’allume” (Clément Marot) = There is nothing so difficult that cannot be done in time.

Alors comme alors = Wait till that happens, and then we will see what is to be done.

Fin comme l’ambre = As sharp as a needle.

[This is said to have originated in the scent of ambergris, which is of a subtle, penetrating nature.]

Cette preuve est amenée de bien loin = That proof is very far-fetched.

*Qui prête à l’ami perd au double = “For loan oft loses both itself and friend.”

[Hamlet, i. 3.]

*On connaît les amis au besoin = A friend in need is a friend indeed.

[Also: C’est dans le malheur qu’on connaît ses amis. “Chacun se dit ami, mais fou qui s’y repose
Rien n’est plus commun que le nom
Rien n’est plus rare que la chose.”
La Fontaine, Fables, iv. 17.

“Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur.”—Ennius.

“Nihil homini amico est opportuno amicius.”—Plautus.

“Vulgare amici nomen, sed rara est fides.”—Phaedrus, iii. 9.

“Les amis sont comme les parapluies, on ne les a jamais sous la main quand il pleut.”—Théodore de Banville.

Un véritable ami est un bienfait des dieux. Prosperity gains friends, adversity tries them. Friends and mules fail us at hard passes. In times of prosperity friends will be plenty,
In times of adversity not one in twenty.]

Mieux vaut ami en voie que denier en courroie = A friend at court is better than money.

Il ne faut prendre de son ami tout ce qu’on peut = Friends are like fiddle-strings, they must not be screwed too tight.

“Les amis de l’heure présente
Ont la nature du melon,
Il en faut essayer cinquante
Avant qu’on rencontre un bon.”
Claude Mermet (1550-1605).

= Trust not a new friend nor an old enemy; Acquaintances are many, but friends are few.

Faites mes amitiés à votre frère = Remember me kindly to your brother.

Faites-le pour l’amour de moi = Do it for my sake.

L’Amour force toutes les serrures = Love laughs at locksmiths.

Vivre d’amour et d’eau fraîche (or, claire) = To live on bread and cheese and kisses.

*On revient toujours à ses premières amours = One always returns to one’s first love; Who loves well, forgets ill.

[C. G. Étienne, Joconde, iii. 1.]

Jamais l’amour ne se paye que par l’amour = Love can neither be bought nor sold, its only price is love.

[“Amour au cœur me poind
Quand bien-aimé je suis,
Mais aimer je ne puis
Quand on ne m’aime point.
Chacun soit adverti
De faire comme moi,
Car d’aimer sans party
C’est un trop grand esmoy.”
Clément Marot.

Lieb ohne Gegenlieb ist wie eine Frage ohne Antwort.]

On dirait qu’il le fait pour l’amour du bon Dieu = He does it with such bad grace that one would say he did it for conscience’ sake.

[“Qui que tu sois, voici ton maître,
Il l’est, le fut, ou le doit être.”
Voltaire, Inscription pour une statue de l’Amour dans les Jardins de Maisons.

“A l’Amour on résiste en vain;
Qui n’aima jamais aimera demain.”
De Benserade, L’Amour, ed. 1690, p. 234.]

Amuser le tapis = To talk a great deal without coming to the point; To talk time away.

Ne vous amusez pas en route = Do not lose an instant on the way.

Je m’en moque comme de l’an quarante = I don’t care a straw for it.

[There was a superstition that the world would come to an end in 1040; after it had passed, this saying arose. The French also say “Je m’en moque comme de Colin-tampon.” Colin-tampon is the name given to the Swiss roll of the drum; and as the other soldiers in the French army paid no attention to it out of jealousy and esprit de corps, this saying arose. Another variant is “Je m’en soucie autant qu’un poisson d’une pomme.”]

Bon an, mal an = One year with another; On an average.

Ressembler à l’âne de Buridan = Not to know what to do.

[Jean Buridan was a dialectician of the fourteenth century, and Rector of the University of Paris. One of his most famous dilemmas was that of the donkey equally hungry and thirsty, which was placed halfway between a pail of water and a load of hay. If the animal had no free-will, it would remain motionless between two equal attractions, and so die of hunger and thirst.]

Contes de Peau d’Âne = Nursery tales.

[A name derived from a tale of Perrault, in which the heroine is so called.]

Pour un point (or, Faute d’un point) Martin perdit son âne = For want of a nail the shoe was lost (or, the miller lost his mare); Be careful of trifles.

[This is said of a person who loses something valuable through a trifle. The Abbey of Asello (Latin asellus = little ass) was taken from the Abbot Martin on account of his punctuation of a sentence over the gateway. Instead of: Porta patens esto, nulli claudaris honesto (Gate be open, and be closed to no honest man), he punctuated: Porta patens esto nulli, claudaris honesto (Gate, be open to none, be closed to an honest man). His successor corrected the mistake, and added: Uno pro puncto caruit Martinus Asello.]

Il fait l’âne pour avoir du son = He simulates stupidity to gain some material advantage.

Brider un âne par la queue = To do anything in exactly the wrong manner; To get hold of the wrong end of the stick.

Il n’y a point d’âne plus mal bâté que celui du commun = What is everybody’s business is nobody’s business.

[Walton, Compleat Angler, Part i. chap. ii.]

Être aux anges = To be delighted, in raptures, in the seventh heaven.

Un ange bouffi = A chubby child.

Échapper comme une anguille = To be as slippery as an eel.

Quand on veut trop serrer l’anguille, elle s’échappe = “Much would have more and lost all”; He who is too greedy loses everything. (See Embrasser.)

Vouloir rompre l’anguille au genou = To attempt an impossibility.

Il est comme l’anguille de Melun (more correctly, Languille de Melun), il crie avant qu’on l’écorche = He is like the eel of Melun, he cries out before he is hurt.

[An actor, called Languille, was once acting the part of St. Bartholomew at Melun, when he was so frightened at the entry of the executioner to flay him alive, that he rushed off the stage yelling.]

Il y a quelque anguille sous roche = There is a snake in the grass; I can smell a rat.

[Lat. Latet anguis in herba.]

Société anonyme = Limited Liability Company (because the names of the shareholders are unknown to the public).

Faire danser l’anse (or, le manche) du panier = To make dishonest profits on marketing (of servants); To gain a market-penny.

Faire le pot (or, panier) à deux anses = To put one’s arms akimbo.

[Often said of a gentleman who has a lady on each arm.]

“Où sont les neiges d’antan?” = Where are the snows of yester-year?

[Antan is an old French word derived from ante and annus. The quotation is the refrain of François Villon’s famous “Ballade des Dames du temps jadis.”]

C’est un apache (pop.) = He is a hooligan.

C’est un apothicaire sans sucre = He is unprovided with the necessities of his profession.

[Druggists in France formerly sold sugar which they used almost in every preparation. Hence one who had no sugar was badly stocked.]

Faire le bon apôtre = To put on a saintly look; To pretend to be holy.

[“Tout Picard que j’étais, j’étais un bon apôtre Et je faisais claquer mon fouet tout comme un autre.”
Racine, Plaideurs, i. 1.]

Pour sauver les apparences = For the sake of appearances.

Selon toute apparence = In all probability.

A tous ceux qu’il appartiendra (legal) = To all whom it may concern.

*C’est un trop vieux poisson pour mordre à l’appât = He is too old a bird to be caught with chaff.

Faire l’appel = To call the roll.

Manquer à l’appel = To be missing, absent.

Battre l’appel = To call to arms.

Il appelle les choses par leur nom = He calls a spade a spade.

[“J’appelle un chat un chat, et Rolet un fripon.”—Boileau, Satires, i. 52.]

Voilà ce que j’appelle pleuvoir = This is what I call raining with a vengeance.

Bon appétit = Good appetite; I hope you will enjoy your meal.

*L’appétit vient en mangeant = One leg of mutton helps down another; The more one has the more one wants; Begin to eat, you’ll soon be hungry.

[“As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on.”
Hamlet, i. 2.

“L’appétit vient en mangeant, disait Angeston, mais la soif s’en va en buvant.”—Rabelais, Gargantua, i.]

*Il n’est chère que d’appétit = Hunger is the best sauce.

[“Ἡ ἐπιθυμία τοῦ σίτου ὄψον.”
Xenophon, Cyrop. i. 5, 12.]

*Pain dérobé réveille appétit = Stolen joys are sweet.

Les malheurs s’apprennent bien vite = Ill news flies fast (or, apace).

Vous apprendrez avec plaisir.... = You will be glad to hear....

*Ce n’est pas à un vieux singe qu’on apprend à faire des grimaces (fam.) = One does not teach one’s grandmother to suck eggs. (See Remontrer.)

[The Greek equivalent was, “To teach an eagle to fly,” or “to teach a dolphin to swim.”—Zenob. ii. 49.

The Romans said, “Sus Minervam docet.” Cf. Cicero, De Oratore, ii. 57.]

*Apprenti n’est pas maître = One must not expect from a beginner the talent of an old hand; You must spoil before you spin.

Mur à hauteur d’appui = A wall breast high (so that one may lean against it).

Faites la proposition, j’irai à l’appui de la boule = You make the proposal, and I will support it.

[This idiom comes from the game of bowls, when by hitting your partner’s ball you may drive it nearer the goal, though unable to approach yourself.]

Vous vous appuyez sur un roseau = You are trusting to a broken reed.

*Après lui il faut tirer l’échelle = One cannot do better than he has; No one can come up to him in that; That takes the cake.

[Comp. Molière, Médecin malgré lui, ii. 1.]

*Jeter le manche après la cognée = To throw the helve after the hatchet; To give up in despair.

*Après nous le déluge = A short life and a merry one; We need not bother about what will happen after we are gone.

[These words were attributed to Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764) in reply to those who remonstrated with her for her extravagance—“When I am gone, the deluge may come for all I care.” (See Desprez, Essai sur la Marquise de Pompadour, a preface to his Mémoirs de Madame du Hausset.) The same idea occurs in the Greek proverb quoted by Cicero (De Finibus, iii. 19), “Ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί.” Milton suggests Tiberius as saying, “When I die, let the earth be rolled in flames.”—Reason of Church Government, i. 5.]

Avoir une araignée dans le (or, au) plafond = To have a bee in one’s bonnet.

*Entre l’arbre et l’écorce il ne faut pas mettre le doigt = One must not interfere in other people’s quarrels.

[This proverb has been travestied by Molière, who makes Sganarelle say: “Apprenez que Cicéron dit qu’entre l’arbre et le doigt il ne faut pas mettre l’écorce.”—Le Médecin malgré lui, i. 2.]

L’arbre ne tombe pas au premier coup = Everything requires time and exertion; Rome was not built in a day.

Quand l’arbre est tombé tout le monde court aux branches = When the tree falls every one goeth to it with his hatchet.

Il s’est toujours tenu au gros de l’arbre = He has always sided with the stronger side.

Débander l’arc ne guérit pas la plaie = To cease doing mischief does not undo the harm one has done.

Être ferme sur les arçons = (lit.) To have a firm seat in the saddle; (fig.) Not to waver in one’s principles.

Il a vidé les arçons = He was unhorsed.

L’argent est un bon passe-partout = Gold goes in at any gate, except heaven.

[“Amour fait moult
Mais argent fait tout.”]

Être cousu d’argent = To be made of money; To be rolling in riches.

Il est chargé d’argent comme un crapaud de plumes = He is penniless.

Y aller bon jeu bon argent = To set about a thing in earnest.

*Point d’argent, point de Suisse = No money, no Swiss; No pay, no piper.

[In the Middle Ages the Swiss were the chief mercenaries of Europe, and occasionally had to resort to severe measures to obtain their pay. Compare Racine, Plaideurs, i. 1. One day when the Swiss were asking for their pay from the king the French Prime Minister said: “The money we have given these Swiss would pave a road from Paris to Basle.” To which the Swiss commander replied: “And the blood we have shed for France would fill a river from Basle to Paris!”]

Payer argent comptant = To pay ready money; To pay in hard cash.

[Synonyms are: En beaux deniers comptants or, en espèces sonnantes et trébuchantes.]

Prendre quelque chose pour argent comptant = To take something for gospel.

Je suis à court d’argent (fam. à sec) = I am short of money (fam. hard up, broke).

*Qui n’a pas argent en bourse, ait miel en bouche = He who has not silver in his purse should have honey on his tongue.

*Argent emprunté porte tristesse = He who goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing.

Représenter les armes de Bourges = To look stupid.

[The arms of Bourges are an ass sitting in an armchair.]

Les armes sont journalières = Victory is fickle.

On se l’arrache = (of persons) He is the rage; (of things) There is a regular scramble for it.

Mentir comme un arracheur de dents = To lie unblushingly; To lie like an epitaph.

Comme vous voilà arrangé! = What a sight you look!

Je l’ai arrangé de la bonne manière = I gave him what he richly deserved.

Arrangez-vous = That is your business; Settle it among yourselves.

Mettre un officier aux arrêts = To put an officer under arrest.

Garder les arrêts = To keep to one’s quarters.

Lever les arrêts = To release from arrest.

C’est un homme qui arrivera = He is sure to get on in the world.

*Un malheur n’arrive jamais seul = Misfortunes never come singly; It never rains but it pours.

*Cela arrive comme marée en carême = That comes just in the nick of time (lit. as sea-fish in Lent). See Carême.

Être à l’article de la mort (or, à l’agonie) = To be at death’s door.

[Lat. In articulo mortis.]

*Qui se ressemble, s’assemble = Birds of a feather flock together; Like will to like.

Il n’est pas dans son assiette = He is not in his normal state of mind; He is out of sorts; He is not up to the mark.

Son assiette dîne pour lui = He pays for his dinner whether he is present or not.

C’est un casseur d’assiettes = He is a swaggerer (a Mohock, in eighteenth century parlance).

C’est un pique-assiette = He is a parasite, a sponge.

L’assiette des impôts = The assessment of taxes.

Le pauvre homme est toujours (comme un chien) à l’attache = The poor man is a very slave, is compelled to work hard and constantly.

*Attacher le grelot = To bell the cat.

[La Fontaine, Conseil tenu par les rats. For an explanation of the phrase see Grelot.]

*Attaquer le taureau par les cornes = To seize the bull by the horns.

Porter atteinte (à l’honneur de) = To sully (the fair name of).

Porter atteinte (aux droits de) = To infringe (the rights of).

C’est une charrette mal attelée = They are a badly-matched pair.

Une question n’attendait pas l’autre = Question quickly followed after question.

Je m’y attendais = That is just what I expected.

Attendez-vous-y = You may depend upon it; (or, ironic.) Don’t you wish you may get it!

*Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre = Everything comes to the man who waits; Time and patience change the mulberry leaf into a silk gown.

On peut s’attendre à tout, surtout à l’inattendu = One may expect anything, especially the unexpected.

Attrape qui peut! = Scramble for it!

Attrape! = 1. Catch! 2. Take that! 3. It serves you right.

Audience à huis clos = A case heard in camera.

Les hommes ne se mesurent pas à l’aune = Men are not to be judged by their size.

[M. Thiers, who was very short, used to say: “Les liqueurs précieuses se conservent dans de petits flacons” = Rich wares in small parcels.]

Savoir ce qu’en vaut l’aune = To know a thing to one’s cost.

Mesurer les autres à son aune = To measure other people’s peck by one’s own bushel.

Tout le long de l’aune = By the yard; Plenty of it.

*Travail d’aurore amène l’or = Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

[The late H. Stacy Marks, R.A., parodied this: “Early to bed and early to rise, No use—unless you advertise.”

The German equivalent is, “Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund”—The morning hour has gold in its mouth.

This is also found in Italian: “Le ore del mattino hanno l’oro in bocca.”]

Aussitôt dit, aussitôt fait = No sooner said than done.

Cela est fini ou autant vaut = It is as good as finished.

*Autant de têtes, autant d’avis = So many men, so many minds.

[“Quot homines, tot sententiæ.”—Terence, Phormio, ii. 4. Also: “Autant de gens, autant de sens.”]

Autant lui en pend au nez (or, à l’oreille) = He will get just the same (in bad sense).

Autant vaut être mordu d’un chien que d’une chienne = One evil is as bad as the other.

Autant dire mille francs = We may as well say £40. (See Aller.)

Autant vaut celui qui tient que celui qui écorche = The receiver is as bad as the thief.

[A hexameter of Phocylides says:
ἀμφότεροι κλῶπες, καὶ ὁ δεξάμενος καὶ ὁ κλέψας.]

C’est toujours autant de gagné = That’s always so much to the good. (See Prendre.)

*Qui sert à l’autel doit vivre de l’autel = Every man must live by his profession.

Il en prendrait sur l’autel = He would rob a church.

Tourner autour du pot = To beat about the bush.

[German: “Wie die Katze um den Brei laufen.”]

Il ne faut pas confondre autour avec alentour = One must not mix up two things entirely different.

[The gamin of Paris adds to this saying: “ni intelligence avec gendarme.”]

Comme dit l’autre = As the saying is.

[Or: Comme on dit.]

Nous parlions de choses et d’autres = We were speaking of different things.

C’est tout un ou tout autre = It is either one thing or the other.

L’un vaut l’autre = One is as bad as the other.

Il en sait bien d’autres = He knows more than one trick.

C’est une autre paire de manches = That is quite another thing; That is a horse of another colour.

Il n’en fait pas d’autres = That is always the way with him; He is at it again.

Allez conter cela à d’autres = Tell that to the marines.

[Often shortened to “À d’autres.”]

Nous autres Anglais sommes très réservés = We English are very reserved.

[“Nous autres ignorants estions perdus si ce livre ne nous eust relevé du bourbier.” Montaigne, Essais, ii. 4, speaking of Amyot’s translation of Plutarch.]

*Autres temps, autres mœurs = Manners change with the times.

J’en ai vu bien d’autres = I have outlived worse things than that.

Faire avaler des couleuvres à quelqu’un = To say very humiliating things to a man who, on account of his inferior position, is obliged to put up with them; To make any one swallow a bitter pill.

Votre montre avance de dix minutes = Your watch is ten minutes fast.

[Compare: “Votre montre retarde de dix minutes” = Your watch is ten minutes slow.]

Cela m’avance bien! (ironic.) = What good is that to me?

Vous voilà bien avancé! (ironic.) = Here you are in a pretty mess! What good have you gained by that?

Je n’en suis pas plus avancé = I am none the wiser (or, nearer).

Vous allez trop avant = You are going too far.

Ils sont arrivés bien avant dans la nuit = They arrived very late at night.

*A père avare, enfant prodigue = A miserly father has a spendthrift son.

[“A femme avare, galant escroc.”
La Fontaine, Contes,ii.]

Avec ça! (colloquial) = Nonsense!

*Un bon averti (or, prévenu) en vaut deux = A man well warned is twice a man; Forewarned, forearmed.

C’est un homme sans aveu = He is a vagabond.

[In feudal times a vassal had to make an avowal to his lord of the lands he held, placing them under his lord’s protection. A man who had no property could not do so.]

*Rien ne soulage comme un aveu sincère = Open confession is good for the soul.

Crier comme un aveugle (qui a perdu son bâton or, son chien) = To yell with all one’s might.

[A variant is: Crier comme un sourd, although deaf people generally speak very quietly.]

Il est toujours du bon avis = His opinion is always good.

Il y a jour d’avis = There is no hurry; There is plenty of time for consideration.

*Avis au lecteur = A note to the reader; A word to the wise; Verb. sap.

(Il) m’est avis qu’il cherche à vous tromper = Somehow I think he wants to deceive you.

*Deux avis valent mieux qu’un = Two heads are better than one.

[The Greeks said: εἷς ἀνήρ, οὐδεὶς ἀνήρ = One man, no man.]

Sauf avis contraire = Unless I hear (or, write) to the contrary.

C’est un avisé compère = He is a cunning fellow.

On y avisera = We will see to it.

Il ne s’avise jamais de rien = He never thinks of anything; He has no initiative.

On ne s’avise jamais de tout = One never thinks of everything.

Ne vous en avisez pas = You had better not.

Un fou avise bien un sage = Good advice often comes whence we do not expect it.

Un verre de vin avise bien un homme = A glass of wine puts wit into a man.

[The French use avoir frequently where we use to be, as in—Avoir faim, soif, chaud, froid, raison, tort, pitié, honte, peur, soin, besoin, mal = To be hungry, thirsty, hot, cold, right, wrong, sorry, ashamed, afraid, careful, in want, ill.]

J’aurai raison de son entêtement = I will master his obstinacy.

J’en ai bien envie = I should like it very much.

Elle n’a pour tout bien que sa beauté = She has nothing but her beauty in her favour; Her face is her fortune.

J’en ai pour deux heures = I shall be two hours over it.

J’en ai pour six mois à m’ennuyer = I am looking forward to (or, in for) six months’ boredom.

Vous avez la parole = It is your turn to speak.

Vous avez la main = It’s your turn to play (at cards).

Vous avez le dé = It’s your turn to play (at dice).

Il ne fera cela qu’autant que vous l’aurez pour agréable = He will never think of doing it if you object to it.

Avoir de quoi (pop.) = To be in easy circumstances.

J’ai de quoi payer = I have enough money to pay.

Il y a de quoi = (lit.) There is good reason; (ironic.) There is no reason.

Je vous demande pardon.—Il n’y a pas de quoi = I beg your pardon.—Pray do not mention it.

J’ai beau dire, il en fera à sa tête = It is of no use my talking, he will do as he likes.

C’est un homme que j’ai dans la main = He is a man I hold in the hollow of my hand, i.e. I can make him do what I like.

Qu’avez vous? J’ai que je m’ennuie = What is the matter with you? The matter is that I am bored to death.

Vous en aurez = You will catch it.

Contre qui en avez-vous? = Against whom have you a grudge?

Il n’est rien de tel que d’en avoir = There is nothing like money to make one respected.

Quand il n’y en a plus, il y en a encore = The thing is inexhaustible; It is easy to get more.

Il n’y a qu’à pleuvoir = It may happen to rain; What if it rains?

Je vais lui dire cela.—Non, il n’aurait qu’à se fâcher = I will tell him that.—No, don’t, he might get angry.

C’est un homme comme il n’y en a point = He is a man who has not his match; There is no equal to him.

En avril
Ne te découvre pas d’un fil
= Change not a clout
Till May be out.

[En mai
Fais ce qu’il te plaît.]

Être marqué au b = To be either hump-backed, one-eyed, lame, or a stutterer.

[i.e. bossu, borgne, boiteux, ou bègue.]

Bâcler son ouvrage = To do one’s work quickly and badly; To “polish off” (or, scamp) one’s work.

[Also: travailler à dépêche-compagnon.]

*“On ne badine pas avec l’amour” = Love is not to be trifled with.

[This is the title of one of Alfred de Musset’s Proverbes. See Porte.]

Quel est le bagage de cet auteur? = What works has that author written? What is that author’s output?

Plier bagage = To pack up and be off.

Bagatelles que tout cela = That is all stuff and nonsense.

Vive la bagatelle! = Away with care!

Cette place est une bague au doigt = That position is a sinecure.

[C’est une bague au doigt is said of any advantageous possession of which one can dispose easily. Quitard derives it from the custom of the seller of land giving to the purchaser as his title a ring on which both had sworn.]

Mener les gens à la baguette = To rule men with a rod of iron; To be a martinet.

Il y a toujours l’un qui baise et l’autre qui tend la joue = Love is never exactly reciprocal.

[Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5.]

Baisser l’oreille = To look confused (or, sheepish.)

[From the action of dogs when expecting a beating.]

Ma vue baisse = I am getting short-sighted; My sight is failing.

[In this sense baisser means to weaken, and is also used of moral and intellectual qualities, as: le sens moral a baissé, ma mémoire baisse.]

Il a donné tête baissée dans le piège (panneau) = He ran headlong into the trap.

Je lui ai fait baisser les yeux = I stared him out of countenance.

Il n’a qu’à se baisser pour en prendre = He has only to stoop and pick it up; He has merely to ask for it to get it.

*Il n’est rien de tel que balai neuf = A new broom sweeps clean.

On lui a donné du balai = They gave him the sack (i.e. dismissed him).

Donner un coup de balai = To make a clean sweep.

Faire pencher la balance = To turn the scale.

Il n’y a pas à balancer = We must not hesitate, but act.

Une balle perdue = A wasted shot; A useless effort.

Une balle morte = A spent ball.

A vous la balle = It is now your turn to act.

Renvoyer la balle = To return the compliment.

Prendre la balle au bond = Not to miss an opportunity; To take time by the forelock; To make hay while the sun shines.

[Also: Prendre l’occasion aux cheveux.

Compare:
“Rem tibi quam nosces, aptam dimittere noli;
Fronte capillata post est Occasio calva.”
Cato, Distichs, ii. 26.

“Her lockes, that loathly were and hoarie grey,
Grew all afore, and loosely hong unrold,
But all behind was bald, and worne away
That none thereof could ever taken hold.”
Spenser, Faerie Queene, ii. 4, 4.

“Occasion turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in front and no hold taken.”
Bacon, Essays, xxi.

“Remember the old adage and make use o’t,
Occasion’s bald behind.”
Massinger, Guardian, iv. 1.]

Il s’en acquittera bien, c’est un enfant de la balle = He will do it well, he is his father’s son.

[Originally this was applied to children of tennis-players, but now to all who follow the profession of their fathers.]

Il lança un ballon d’essai avant de produire son grand ouvrage = He sent out a feeler before publishing his great work.

Le roi convoqua le ban et l’arrière-ban = The king assembled all his dependants.

[Le ban were the king’s direct vassals, such as earls, barons, and knights; l’arrière-ban were the king’s indirect vassals, or the vassals of vassals. “A proclamation whereby all (except some privileged officers and citizens) that hold their lands of the Crowne, are summoned to meet at a certaine place, there to attend the King whithersoever and against whomsoever he goes.”—Cotgrave.]

Faire bande à part = Not to mix with other people.

[In Parliamentary parlance, “to form a cave” (of Adullam).]

Jouer devant les banquettes = (of actors) To play to empty benches.

Se faire la barbe = To shave.

Rire dans sa barbe = To laugh in one’s sleeve.

[See Cape. This is used always of men, whereas rire sous cape is used chiefly of women.]

Je le lui dirai à sa barbe = I will say it to his face.

Je lui ferai la barbe quand il voudra = I will show him who is master whenever he likes.

Vous arrivez trop tard, la barre est tirée = You are too late, the line is drawn, the list is closed.

Je ne fais que toucher barres = I am off again immediately.

J’ai barres sur lui = I have an advantage over him; I have the whip-hand (the pull) over him.

[Expressions taken from the game of barres, or prisoner’s base.]

*A porte basse, passant courbé = One must bow to circumstances.

Il se retira l’oreille basse = He went away with his tail between his legs.

Les vainqueurs firent main basse sur les biens des habitants = The victors pillaged the town.

Rester chapeau bas = To stand hat in hand.

Il m’a traité de haut en bas = He treated me contemptuously.

Vous ne savez pas où le bât le blesse = You do not know where the shoe pinches him.

[“Je sçay mieux où le bas me blesse.” Maistre Pierre Pathelin, l. 1357. Bât = pack-saddle. Compare the German: Jeder weiss am besten wo ihn der Schuh drückt.

The phrase first appears in Plutarch’s Life of Æmilius Paullus. A certain Roman having forsaken his wife, her friends fell out with him and asked what fault he found in her; was she not faithful and fair, and had she not borne him many beautiful children? He replied by putting forth his foot and saying: “Is not this a goodly shoe? Is it not finely made, and is it not new? And yet I dare say there is not one of you can tell where it pinches me.”]

Inconnu au bataillon (fam.) = I don’t know him; No one knows him.

C’était une bataille rangée = It was a pitched battle.

Cet argument est son cheval de bataille = That argument is his stronghold; That is his great argument.

Arriver en trois bateaux = To come with great fuss, in great state, with unnecessary ceremony.

[This expression is usually used sarcastically; it originates from great personages or rich merchant-men being accompanied by ships of war. Compare Rabelais, i. 16, and La Fontaine, Fables, ix. 3. Le léopard et le singe qui gagnent de l’argent à la foire.]

Il travaille à bâtons rompus = He works by fits and starts.

Conversation à bâtons rompus = Desultory talk.

Il cherchait à nous mettre des bâtons dans les roues = He tried to put a spoke in our wheel.

Le tour du bâton = Perquisites, illicit profits.

Ce sera mon bâton de vieillesse = He will be my support (consolation) in my old age.

Il lui a battu froid = He gave him the cold shoulder.

[Comp. “Majorum ne quis amicus frigore te feriat.”—Horace, Sat., ii. 1.]

Battre la campagne = 1. (lit.) To scour the country. 2. (fig.) To talk nonsense. 3. (of invalids) To wander. 4. To beat about the bush.

Battre la breloque (berloque) = To talk nonsense.

Battre le pavé = 1. To loaf about. 2. To wander about in search for work.

Tout battant neuf = All brand new.

Battre le chien devant le loup = To pretend to be angry with one person to deceive another.

Avoir les yeux battus = To look tired about the eyes.

La fête battait son plein = The entertainment was at its height.

Battre quelqu’un à plate couture = To beat some one hollow.

[Literally, to beat some one so hard and thoroughly, as to flatten the seams (coutures) of his coat.]

*Les battus payent l’amende = The weakest go to the wall; Those who lose pay.

L’un bat les buissons et l’autre prend les oiseaux = One does the work and the other reaps the advantage; One man starts the game and another kills it.

*Autant vaut bien battu que mal battu = As well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb; In for a penny, in for a pound. (See Chien.)

Je n’ai pas foi dans son baume = I have no faith in his plan.

Quand les femmes sont ensemble, elles taillent des bavettes à n’en plus finir = When women get together they indulge in endless gossip.

Coucher à la belle étoile = To sleep out of doors.

Déchirer quelqu’un à belles dents = To criticise some one mercilessly; To tear a person’s reputation to shreds.

Il fera beau quand je retournerai chez lui = It will be a very fine day when I go to his house again (i.e. I shall never go).

Voir tout en beau = To see everything through rose-coloured spectacles. (See Noir.)

Faire le beau = (of dogs) To beg.

Il y a beau temps que je ne vous ai (pas) vu = I have not seen you for many a day.

J’en entends de belles sur votre compte = I hear nice goings-on of you.

Il en a fait de belles = He played nice tricks (ironic).

Il vous en conte de belles = He is telling you fine tales; He is taking you in finely.

Vous me la donnez (or, baillez) belle (ironic.) = A pretty tale you are telling me; Aren’t you stuffing me up nicely?

Ce que vous proposez est bel et bon, mais je n’en ferai rien = What you propose is all very fine, but I shall do no such thing.

Être dans de beaux draps = To be in a pretty pickle (ironic).

Vous l’avez échappé belle = You have had a narrow escape (or, shave).

Il a beau parler, il ne me convaincra pas = It is of no use for him to speak, he will not convince me; Let him say what he will, he will not convince me.

[The origin of this use of beau is obscure. Larousse suggests the origin may be in the idea of having a fine field for operations, which will be of no value, as our: “it is all very fine for me to speak.”]

Il recommença de plus belle = He began again worse than ever.

Vous avez beau jeu = 1. (lit.) You have good cards. 2. (fig.) You have the advantage.

*La belle plume fait le bel oiseau = Fine feathers make fine birds.

Se mettre au beau = (of the weather) To clear up.

Jouer la belle = To play the rubber (or third game, to see which of the players is the conqueror).

*Beaucoup de bruit pour rien = Much ado about nothing.

La beauté ne se mange pas en salade = Beauty does not fill the larder; Prettiness makes no pottage.

Il m’a tenu le bec dans l’eau = He kept me in suspense.

C’est un homme qui ne se laisse pas passer la plume par le bec = He is a man not easily taken in.

[Clerks bet a newcomer that he cannot write with a pen in his mouth. On his endeavouring to do so, they pull the pen sharply through his lips, thus inking his face. “Qu’on me fasse passer la plume par le bec.” Molière, Les Femmes Savantes, iii. 6.]

C’est un blanc bec = He is a beardless boy, greenhorn.

“Souffrez que je lui montre son bec jaune” = Allow me to show him he is a silly goose.

[Molière, Le Malade Imaginaire, iii. 17. Bec jaune or béjaune is an allusion to young birds whose beaks are generally yellow.]

Il a bec et ongles = He knows how to defend himself.

Avoir bon bec (fam.) = To be a chatterbox; To speak well; To be able to answer back.

[“Il n’est bon bec que de Paris” is the refrain of Villon’s “Ballade des Femmes de Paris.”]

C’est une bécasse = She is a goose.

Bêcher quelqu’un (fam.) = To pick a person to pieces.

Sous (or, par) bénéfice d’inventaire = 1. (lit. in a legal sense) Without prejudice. 2. (fig.) Only to a certain point, conditionally, for what it is worth, with a pinch of salt.

[e.g. Il faut croire ce conte sous bénéfice d’inventaire. The origin of the legal phrase arose from the fact that an inheritor is liable for the debts of the deceased only in proportion to his inheritance, which is verified by the inventory. Thus, if the debts are more than the inheritance, a sole heir would decline to inherit at all.

Compare: “Un païen, qui sentait quelque peu le fagot
Et qui croyait en Dieu, pour user de ce mot,
Par bénéfice d’inventaire.”
La Fontaine, Fables, iv. 19.]

Il faut prendre le bénéfice avec les charges = One must take the rough with the smooth.

J’ai été bercé de cela = I have heard that from my cradle.

Bon berger tond mais n’écorche pas = We may use but not abuse our subordinates.

Avoir la berlue (fam.) = To see things which do not exist; To have a wrong idea of anything.

Aimer la besogne faite = To hate work; To like to get work over.

Abattre de la besogne = To get through a great deal of work.

*On connaît les amis au besoin = A friend in need is a friend indeed. (See Ami.)

*On a souvent besoin d’un plus petit que soi = A mouse may be of service to a lion.

[La Fontaine, Fables, ii. 11.]

*Morte la bête, mort le venin = Dead dogs cannot bite; Dead men tell no tales.

Cet homme est ma bête noire (mon cauchemar) = That man is my pet aversion; I hate the very sight of that man.

Pas si bête = Not so green, foolish.

Il est bête à manger du foin = He is a perfect idiot.

[Also: bête comme (un) chou, une oie, un pot, une cruche.]

*Qui se fait bête, le loup le mange = If one is too confiding, one is imposed upon. (See Brebis.)

C’est une bonne bête (or, la bête du bon Dieu) = He is a good-natured fellow (not over-clever).

Une bête à bon Dieu (or, bête à Dieu) = A ladybird.

Plus fin que lui n’est pas bête = It would take a smart man to deceive him.

On ne peut manier le beurre qu’on ne se graisse les doigts = One cannot touch pitch without soiling one’s fingers; If you have to do with money, some will stick.

[“But I think they that touch pitch will be defiled.” Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3.]

Il faut faire son beurre = One must make a profit; One must feather one’s nest.

Ça entre comme dans du beurre = (fig.) It is as easy as anything.

*Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien = Leave well alone.

Grand bien vous fasse = Much good may it do you.

Le navire a péri corps et biens = The ship went down with all hands on board.

Il a du bien au soleil = He has landed property.

Ils sont séparés de corps et de biens = They have had a judicial separation (a mensa et thoro).

Tout va bien = It is all right.

C’est bien fait = It serves you (him, her) right.

C’est bien lui = That’s he all over.

On y est très bien = The accommodation there is very good.

Je suis très bien ici = I am quite comfortable here.

*Qui est bien qu’il s’y tienne = Rest content where thou art; Better dry bread at home than roast meat abroad.

Cet homme est très bien = He is a gentleman.

Mener une entreprise à bien = To bring an affair to a successful issue.

Il est sur son bien-dire = He is on his best behaviour; He minds his p’s and q’s.

Nous voilà bien (ironic.) = Here is a nice state of things.

Il ne faut attendre son bien que de soi-même = Always rely on yourself.

Le bien lui vient en dormant = He becomes rich without any trouble.

Tant bien que mal = So-so; Neither well nor ill; After a fashion. (See Tant.)

Cela est bientôt dit = That is easier said than done.

Ne pas se faire de bile (fam.) = To take things easily.

Un billet de faire part = A letter by which a birth, marriage, or death is made known to friends.

[Cards are used in England for marriages and deaths.]

Un billet doux = A love letter.

*Ah! le bon billet qu’a La Châtre = Promises are like pie-crust, made to be broken.

[The Marquis de la Châtre was the lover of the celebrated Ninon de l’Enclos (1616-1706). When he was obliged to go off to the wars, he made her write him a letter promising to remain faithful to him. On taking another lover, she remembered the letter she had written, and uttered these words, which have become proverbial for any worthless promise.]

J’ai passé une nuit blanche = I have not slept a wink all night.

Dire tantôt blanc, tantôt noir = To say first one thing and then another.

Se manger le blanc des yeux = To have a furious quarrel.

*Rouge le soir et blanc le matin,
C’est la journée du pèlerin =
Red at night is the shepherd’s delight,
Red in the morning, the shepherd’s warning.
Evening red and morning gray
Are two sure signs of a fine day.

Manger son blé en herbe = To anticipate one’s revenue.

J’en suis tout bleu (fam.) = Well! I am surprised.

En bloc = In the mass, in the lump.

Plus il boit, plus il a soif = Ever drunk, ever dry.

*Qui a bu n’a point de secrets = When wine sinks, words swim; In vino veritas; Drink washes off the daub, and discovers the man; What the sober man has in his heart, the drunkard has on his lips.

[“La vérité sort mieux d’un tonneau que d’un puits.” Augier, L’Aventurière, ii. 4.]

*Le vin est tiré, il faut le boire = You have gone too far now to draw back; In for a penny, in for a pound.

[At the siege of Douai in 1667, Louis XIV. found himself unexpectedly under a heavy cannonade from the besieged city. In compliance with the entreaties of those around him, who urged him not to risk so important a life, he was about to retire in a somewhat unsoldierly and unkingly fashion, when M. de Charost rode up and whispered this proverb in his ear. The king remained exposed to the fire of the enemy for a suitable time, and held in higher honour the counsellor who had saved him from an unseemly retreat.—Trench. “Le vin est tiré, Monsieur, il faut le boire” is a line in Regnard’s Joueur, iii. 2.]

Ce n’est pas la mer à boire = That is no very difficult matter.

Il boit du lait (fam.) = He is satisfied, happy.

*Qui a bu boira = Habit is second nature; If you take to the habit of drinking you cannot get rid of it.

[“Et quiconque a joué, toujours joue et jouera.” Regnard, Le Joueur, iv. 1.]

Boire comme un trou (une éponge) = To drink like a fish.

Boire un bouillon (lit.) = To swallow water (when swimming); To swallow a bitter pill; To lose a lot of money.

Boire sec = To drink hard; To drink wine neat (without adding water).

Boire le calice jusqu’à la lie = To drink the cup to the dregs.

Il boirait la mer et ses poissons = Nothing can assuage his thirst.

Croyez cela et buvez de l’eau (fam.) = Do not believe that, I know it is not true; Surely you are not simple enough to believe that!

*Qui fait la faute la boit = As you have brewed, so you must drink; As you have sown, so you must reap; As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.

Boire à tire-larigot = To drink excessively.

[The origin of this expression is obscure. Larousse gives the following explanation, adding that it was probably invented to explain the saying, as it can be found in no ancient author. “Odo Rigaud was formerly Archbishop of Rouen, and in celebration of his appointment he had a huge bell cast for his cathedral in 1282. This bell was called after him la Rigaud. After ringing this bell, the bellringers required much wine to refresh them; hence boire à tire larigot, or la Rigaud, meant to drink like one who has been ringing a heavy bell.” Littré favours the derivation from larigot, or arigot, a little flute, and then the expression would be analogous to flûter, a popular word for boire. But probably the correct explanation is that of Sainte-Palaye, who says that a later meaning of arigot was the tap of a cask, so that this being pulled out, one could drink more without any delay.]

On verra de quel bois je me chauffe = They will see what stuff I am made of.

Faire flèche de tout bois = To use every means to accomplish an end; To leave no stone unturned.

Il ne savait plus de quel bois faire flèche = He did not know which way to turn. (See Saint and Pied.)

Il est du bois dont on fait les flûtes = He is of an easy, pliable disposition (i.e. like the flexible reeds of which flutes were originally made).

Nous avons trouvé visage de bois = We found nobody at home; “We found the oak sported.”

Le bois tortu fait le feu droit = The end justifies the means.

Il ne faut pas clocher devant les boiteux = One must not remind people of their infirmities. (See Corde.)

Il vient d’être bombardé membre de ce club = He has just been pitchforked into that club (over the heads of more deserving people).

Il la fait courte et bonne = He is having a short life and a merry one.

*A quelque chose malheur est bon = It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

Dites-moi une bonne fois pourquoi vous êtes mécontent = Tell me once and for all why you are dissatisfied.

A quoi bon lui dire cela? = What is the good of telling him that?

A la bonne heure! = 1. Well done! 2. That is something like! 3. At last! 4. Capital!

Il n’est pas bon à jeter aux chiens = He is good for nothing.

Il a bon pied, bon œil = He is sound, wind and limb; He is hale and hearty.

Faire bonne mine à mauvais jeu = To put a good face on misfortune; To make the best of a bad job.

[Also: Faire contre fortune bon cœur.]

*A bon jour, bonne œuvre = The better the day, the better the deed.

Tout lui est bon = All is fish that comes to his net.

Si bon vous semble = If you think fit.

*Les bons comptes font les bons amis = Short reckonings make long friends.

*A bon vin point d’enseigne = Good wine needs no bush. (See Vin.)

Une bonne fuite vaut mieux qu’une mauvaise attente = Discretion is the better part of valour.

En voilà une bonne! (i.e. plaisanterie); Elle est bonne, celle-là! = Oh! what a good joke! “What a cram!” That’s rather a tall story.

Est-ce qu’il est parti pour tout de bon? = Has he gone for good?

Faire faux bond = 1. To deceive. 2. To fail to keep an appointment.

Il ne va que par sauts et par bonds = He only works by fits and starts.

Tant de bond que de volée = By hook or by crook.

Au petit bonheur! = I will chance it!

Par bonheur = As luck would have it.

Petit bonhomme vit encore = There’s life in the old dog yet.

[An expression derived from a game which consisted in lighting a large roll of paper and passing it round a circle of people, each one repeating these words. The roll would often appear to be out, when a vigorous swirl would fan it again into a flame.]

Faiseur de boniment (pop.) = A cheap-jack, clap-trap speaker.

[Bonir = to talk like clowns at a fair.]

C’est simple comme bonjour = It is as easy as kiss your hand.

*C’est bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet = It is six of one and half-a-dozen of the other.

C’est un des gros bonnets (or, légumes) de l’endroit = He is one of the bigwigs of the place.

Il a la tête près du bonnet = He is quick-tempered, easily ruffled.

Il a mis son bonnet de travers = He is in a bad temper; He got out of bed the wrong side.

[Also: Il s’est levé du mauvais côté (or, pied).]

Jeter son bonnet par dessus les moulins (of women) = To throw off all restraint; Not to care a straw for what people may think of your bad conduct.

Ce sont deux têtes dans un bonnet = They are hand and glove together.

Être triste (gai, ironic.) comme un bonnet de nuit = To be as dull as ditchwater; To be in the dumps.

[Also: Gai comme une porte de prison.]

Il a pris cela sous son bonnet = 1. He invented it. 2. He took it upon himself.

Ses collègues opinent du bonnet = His colleagues agree with what he says (without speaking). (See Opiner.)

*“Dans le royaume des aveugles les borgnes sont rois” = Among the blind, the one-eyed is king.

[The quotation comes from J. J. Rousseau’s Confessions, Part i., Bk. v.]

Il est planté là comme une borne = He stands there like a post.

Il faut savoir se borner = One must place limits on one’s desires.

[“Qui ne sait se borner ne sut jamais écrire.”
Boileau, Art Poétique, i.]

Rire comme un bossu = To split one’s sides with laughter.

Il a mis du foin dans ses bottes = He has feathered his nest; He has taken care of number one.

Il est haut comme ma botte = He is a mere sixpennyworth of halfpence; He is very short.

A propos de bottes = With reference to nothing in particular.

C’est le bouc émissaire = He is the scapegoat.

Faire la bouche en cœur = To try and look amiable; To put on a captivating look; To purse up one’s lips.

Cet argument me ferma la bouche = That argument was a poser for me; I could not reply to that.

Il y en avait à bouche que veux-tu = There was a plentiful supply of it.

Je garde cela pour la bonne bouche = I am keeping that for the last.

[Une bonne bouche = A tit-bit.]

Il prend sur sa bouche pour aider ces gens = He stints himself to help those people.

Faire la petite bouche = To be dainty; To have a small appetite; To be hard to please.

Bouche close (cousue)! = Not a word, mind! “Mum’s the word.”

La bouche fendue jusqu’aux oreilles = A mouth stretching from ear to ear.

Être sur sa bouche = To be an epicure.

Mettre les bouchées doubles = To eat quickly; To hurry.

Perdre la boule (pop.) = To lose one’s head; Not to know what one is doing. (See Tramontane.)

Les officiers étaient en bourgeois (or, en civil) = The officers were in plain clothes, in mufti.

Elle fait une bonne cuisine bourgeoise = She is a good plain cook.

Je prends mes repas dans une pension bourgeoise = I board at a private boarding-house.

*Selon ta bourse gouverne ta bouche = Cut your coat according to your cloth.

[“Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse;
Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.”
Benjamin Franklin.]

Faire bon marché de sa bourse = To say a thing has cost less than it has.

Obtenir une bourse au lycée = To gain an exhibition (or, scholarship) at a public school.

Avoir toujours la bourse à la main = To have always one’s hand in one’s pocket.

Loger le diable dans sa bourse = To be penniless.

[Coins generally had a cross on them, which was a protection against the devil. (See Diable.) Compare Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, xxi.—“We have not seen the cross of her money.”]

Ami jusqu’à la bourse = A lukewarm friend.

Sans bourse délier = Without any expense.

Il tira à bout portant = He fired point-blank.

*Au bout de l’aune faut (or, manque) le drap = There is an end to everything; The last straw breaks the camel’s back.

Il est économe de bouts de chandelle = He is penny wise and pound foolish.

[Or, Il fait des économies de bouts de chandelle.]

Il a ri du bout des lèvres = He laughed in a forced manner.

Il est poète jusqu’au bout des ongles = He is a poet to his finger-tips.

Je suis à bout de force = I am exhausted, done up.

C’est le bout du monde = That is the utmost.

Être au bout de son rouleau, de son latin, de sa gamme = To be at one’s wits’ end; Not to know what to do.

Il répète la même chose à tout bout de champ = He repeats the same thing every instant, every time he has the chance.

Eh bien! au bout du compte vous avez tort = Well! you are wrong, after all.

Ma patience est à bout = My patience is exhausted.

Il m’a poussé à bout = He provoked me beyond endurance.

Laisser voir le bout de l’oreille = To show one’s ignorance (or, true character); To show what one is driving at; To show the cloven hoof.

[A reference to the fable of the ass in the lion’s skin.]

Tenir le haut bout = To have the whip hand.

C’est un vrai boute-en-train = He is the very life and soul of the party.

Il n’a rien vu que par le trou d’une bouteille = He has seen nothing of the world.

C’est la bouteille à l’encre que cette affaire = This is a very obscure matter; That affair is as clear as mud.

Toute la boutique (pop.) = The whole show (i.e. a thing and everything connected with it); The whole boiling; The whole bag of tricks.

[Also: tout le tremblement, and, le diable et son train.]

*Tomber de la poêle dans la braise = To fall out of the frying-pan into the fire.

Passer sur une chose comme un chat sur la braise = To pass lightly over a subject.

Être comme l’oiseau sur la branche = To be very unsettled.

[This generally refers to a man’s position in life, whether he will stay where he is or be made to leave.]

*Tout ce qui branle ne tombe pas = A creaking gate hangs long.

Bras dessus bras dessous = Arm in arm.

J’ai les bras rompus = My arms are tired.

Cette perte nous coupe bras et jambes = This loss cripples us entirely.

Les bras me tombent de surprise (or, m’en tombent) = I am struck dumb with surprise.

Il a le bras long = He has great influence.

Si vous lui en donnez long comme le doigt, il en prendra long comme le bras = Give him an inch, he will take an ell.

[“Laissez leur prendre un pied chez vous
Ils en auront bientôt pris quatre.”
La Fontaine, Fables, ii. 7.

German: Wer sich auf den Achseln sitzen lässt, dem sitzt man nachher auf dem Kopfe = Who lets one sit on his shoulders shall have him presently sit on his head.

Italian: Si ti lasci metter in spalla il vitello, quindi a poco ti metter an la vacca = If thou suffer a calf to be laid on thee, within a little they’ll clap on the cow.]

Je l’ai saisi à bras le corps = I seized him round the waist (in a struggle).

Je l’ai battu à tour de bras (or, à bras raccourci) = I beat him with all my might.

Pourquoi restez-vous là les bras croisés? = Why are you waiting there doing nothing?

J’ai ses enfants sur les bras = I have his children on my hands.

*A brebis tondue Dieu mesure le vent = God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.

[Also: Dieu donne le froid selon le drap. This is said to occur first in a collection of proverbs made by Henri Estienne (Stephanus), 1594. The earliest mention in English is, I believe, in Sterne’s Sentimental Journey.]

*Qui se fait brebis, le loup le mange = He who is too confiding is imposed upon; Daub yourself with honey and you’ll be covered with flies.

*Brebis comptées le loup les mange = Counting one’s chickens will not keep the fox off; If you count your chickens, harm will happen to them.

[Compare Vergil, Ecl., vii. 52. This somewhat difficult expression can also be translated: “A bold thief is not frightened at things being counted.” It no doubt refers to the old superstition that counting one’s possessions was followed by misfortune, as in 2 Samuel xxiv.]

*Brebis qui bêle perd sa goulée = It is the silent sow that sucks the wash.

La brebis galeuse = The black sheep.

Il ne faut qu’une brebis galeuse pour infecter tout le troupeau = One scabby sheep will taint the whole flock; One ill weed mars a whole pot of pottage.

[Also: Pomme pourrie gâte sa compagnie = One rotten apple spoils the whole basket.]

Revenir bredouille = (of sportsmen) To return with an empty bag; To have made an unsuccessful attempt; To return disappointed.

Se coucher bredouille = To go to bed supperless.

*À cheval donné on ne regarde pas à la bride = One does not look a gift-horse in the mouth.

Il courait à toute bride (or, à bride abattue) = He was running at full speed.

Je lui ai mis la bride sur le cou = I gave him full liberty.

Vous lui tenez la bride trop haute = You keep him too much under restraint.

*Tout ce qui brille (or, reluit) n’est pas or = All is not gold that glitters.

Nous n’avons pas un brin de feu = We have not got a bit of fire.

C’est un beau brin de fille = She is a fine slip of a girl.

Il court sur mes brisées = (lit.) He pursues the same game as I do; (fig.) He poaches on my preserves.

[Brisées = small branches broken from trees and dropped on the ground to mark the lair or path of a beast.]

Brisons là! = Let us have no more of that; That will do.

Être à la brochette = 1. To be brought up by hand (of a bird). 2. To be brought up tenderly, with too much care.

Je crois que vous brodez = (fig.) I think you are exaggerating, romancing.

Il brode bien = He is good at drawing the long bow.

Établir une rente sur les brouillards de la Seine = To have an income in the clouds (i.e. nothing).

Est-ce que vous vous êtes brouillés? = Are you no longer friends?

Il a eu le malheur de se brouiller avec la justice = He was unfortunate enough to fall out with justice (i.e. to be punished by imprisonment, fine, etc.).

*Où la chèvre est attachée il faut qu’elle broute = One must bow to circumstances; One must put up with the inconveniences of one’s position if one can get nothing better; One must not expect more from life than life can give; We must take things as we find them.

[“Là où la chèvre est liée il faut bien qu’elle y broute.”—Molière, Le Médecin malgré lui, iii. 3.]

L’herbe sera bien courte s’il ne trouve à brouter = He would live on nothing; It will go hard if he does not pick up a living.

Faire plus de bruit que de besogne = To be more fussy than industrious.

*Grand bruit, petite besogne = The more hurry, the less speed; Great cry, little wool.

*Qui a bruit de se lever matin peut dormir jusqu’au soir = A good reputation covers many sins.

Les tonneaux vides sont ceux qui font le plus de bruit = The worst wheel makes the most noise.

Il s’est brûlé la cervelle = He blew his brains out.

Ils tirèrent sur lui à brûle-pourpoint = They fired at him point-blank (so as to burn his doublet).

Il m’a posé cette question à brûle-pourpoint = He asked me that question quite unexpectedly.

Brûler une station (une étape) = To run through a station (or, a halting-place) without stopping.

Brûler le pavé = To dash along at full speed, to “scorch.”

Brûler à petit feu = To wait impatiently, to be on thorns.

Cherchez bien, vous brûlez = Search well, you are getting warm.

[Said to children who are looking for a hidden object, and are getting near it.]

Nous avons brûlé nos vaisseaux = There is no going back now; We mean to fight to the last.

[Agathocles, tyrant of Syracuse, on landing in Africa 317 B.C., burnt his vessels in order to force his soldiers to conquer or to die. William of Normandy (1066) and Cortez (1518) did the same.]

Un acteur qui brûle les planches = An actor who plays with spirit, “go.”

Brûler la politesse = To behave rudely by leaving a person abruptly.

*Il n’y a si petit buisson qui ne porte ombre = There is no man, however humble, who cannot aid (or, injure) his superior.

Trouver buisson creux = To find the birds flown.

*On ne saurait faire d’une buse un épervier = One cannot make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

[“Que l’en ne puet fere espervier
En nule guise d’ung busart.”
Guillaume de Lorris, Roman de la Rose, 3839.

Also: D’un goujat on ne peut pas faire un gentilhomme = It takes three generations to make a gentleman; and D’un sac à charbon il ne saurait sortir blanche farine.]

De but en blanc = Point-blank; Abruptly.

Ça a sa petite volonté (fam.) = It has a will of its own (in speaking of children, etc.).

C’est toujours ça = That is something, at any rate.

Pas plus que ça?; Rien que ça? = Is that all?

[This is generally used ironically: e.g. Le cocher m’a demandé vingt francs pour aller de la Place de la Concorde à Longchamp!—Rien que ça?]

Cet avocat a un bon cabinet = That barrister has a good practice.

Courir le cachet = To go from house to house giving private lessons.

[This expression comes from the custom of the master giving to the pupil a number of tickets (called cachets) at the first lesson, for which the pupil pays, and gives one back at the end of each lesson.]

C’est le cadet de mes soucis = That is the least of my cares; That is the last thing I worry about.

Il a fait le tour du cadran = 1. He has slept the clock round. 2. He has worked for twelve hours at a stretch.

*La belle cage ne nourrit pas l’oiseau = Fine clothes do not fill the stomach.

Il tient la caisse = (lit.) He keeps the cash account; (fig.) He holds the purse-strings.

Il fait la caisse = He is making up his cash account.

Quel est l’état de votre caisse? = How much cash have you in hand?

Être à fond de cale (fam.) = To be hard up, at the end of one’s resources.

[Also more pop.: battre la dèche. See Sec and Argent.]

En rase (or, pleine) campagne = In the open country.

Battre la campagne. (See Battre.)

Se mettre en campagne = (lit., of a general) To take the field; (fig.) To canvass or look out for a post; To start working.

Rendre un homme camus = To stop a man’s mouth; To make a man look small.

Il demeura tout camus = He had not a word to say for himself; He was “stumped.”

Cette nouvelle n’est qu’un canard = That story is all humbug.

[Canard is an absurd tale mocking the credulity of listeners. Littré derives the word from the phrase vendre à quelqu’un un canard à moitié = to half sell a duck to any one, i.e. not to sell it at all, and so, to cheat. A moitié was suppressed and un canard came to mean a cheat, a sell. Many other explanations are given of this word.]

Faire la cane = To run away; To show the white feather.

[This expression literally means to bob down, like a duck, to escape being shot. The verb caner (= to funk) is more often used now, or the less familiar caponner. “To show the white feather” arises from the fact that white feathers in game-cocks show impurity of breed.]

Il prend un air capable = He puts on a bumptious look.

C’est un homme capable de tout = He is a man that would stick at nothing.

Rire sous cape (or, sous sa coiffe) = To laugh in one’s sleeve (generally of women. See Barbe.)

N’avoir que la cape et l’épée = To be titled but penniless (generally used of young officers who have nothing but their pay).

Roman de cape et d’épée = A romantic, melodramatic tale (e.g. Dumas, Les Trois Mousquetaires).

*La caque sent toujours le hareng = What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.

[“You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.”
Moore, Farewell.]

Il a le caractère bien fait = He is always good-tempered.

Il a le caractère mal fait = He cannot take a joke.

C’est un sot à vingt-quatre carats = He is an out-and-out fool, an A 1 fool.

[“Enfin quoique ignorante à vingt et trois carats.”
La Fontaine, Fables, vii, 15.]

*Cela arrive comme mars en carême = That comes regularly, like clockwork.

*Cela arrive comme marée en carême = That comes very seasonably, just at the right time.

Une face de carême = A sad, pale, woe-begone face (like that of one who has fasted all Lent).

Prêcher sept ans pour un carême = To do a great deal for little good.

Muet comme une carpe = As dumb as an oyster.

Baîller comme une carpe = To yawn one’s head off.

Elle fait la carpe pâmée (fam.) = She turns up the whites of her eyes; She pretends to be ill; She looks like a dying duck in a thunderstorm.

[Also: Faire des yeux de merlan frit.]

Une partie carrée = A party composed of two ladies and two gentlemen.

C’est une tête carrée = He is an obstinate fellow.

C’est un valet de carreau = He is a contemptible fellow, a snob.

Coucher sur le carreau = To sleep on the floor.

Il l’a laissé sur le carreau = He killed him (or, left him for dead on the ground).

Il est resté sur le carreau = He was killed on the spot, left for dead on the ground.

[Formerly the floors of rooms were paved with square tiles or bricks called carreaux. Kitchens are still so paved in France, and often ground-floor rooms in the country.]

Battre les cartes = To shuffle the cards.

Donner les cartes = To deal the cards.

Brouiller les caries = (fig.) To sow discord.

Elle lui a tiré les cartes = She told his fortune (by cards).

Il a vu le dessous des cartes = He has been behind the scenes; he is in the secret, “in the know.”

Jouer cartes sur table = To play openly; To act frankly.

Donner carte blanche = To give full permission; To grant a person full liberty to act according to his judgment.

Je connais la carte du pays = I know the country well.

C’est un homme qui ne perd pas la carte = He is a man who keeps his wits about him, who has an eye to the main chance.

C’est un château de cartes que cette maison = This is a jerry-built house.

Rester dans les cartons = To be pigeon-holed.

Des objets de carton = (fig.) Gimcrack things.

C’est bien le cas de le dire = One may indeed say so.

Il n’est pas dans le cas de vous nuire = He is not in a position to harm you.

Le cas échéant = In such a case; If such should be the case.

C’est le cas ou jamais = It is now or never.

Nous en faisons grand cas = We value it very highly.

Tout mauvais cas est niable = A man may be expected to deny a deed that he knows to be wrong.

Un en-cas = Something prepared in case of need.

[Formerly this was said of a slight meal placed in a bedroom in case one should wake in the night and need food. Now it rather refers to anything that can be used in case guests arrive unexpectedly. Also of a parasol that can be used as an umbrella in case it rains. The latter is more usually called un en-tout-cas.]

Une noce à tout casser (pop.) = A rare old jollification.

Vous me cassez la tête avec votre bruit = You split my head with your noise.

Je ne me casse pas la tête avec (or, pour) de telles bagatelles = I don’t worry my head (or, rack my brains) over such trifles.

Il nous cassait l’encensoir sur le nez = He was smothering us with flatteries.

[To ‘incense’ any one would be to honour or praise him, but to break the censer against his nose would be overdoing it.]

Les fatigues ont cassé cet homme = Hardships have broken that man down.

J’ai cassé une croûte = I just had a snack.

Cet homme casse les vitres = That man speaks out boldly, to bring matters to a crisis; That man does not pick and choose his words.

On ne fait pas d’omelettes sans casser des œufs = Nothing is done without trouble and sacrifice.

[A saying attributed to Napoleon I. in defence of the great mortality caused by his wars.]

Payer les pots cassés = To stand the racket.

Se casser le nez = 1. To fall on one’s face. 2. To knock up against an obstacle. 3. To fail in an enterprise.

C’est comme un cataplasme sur une jambe de bois = A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse.

Cet individu n’a pas l’air catholique = That man does not look very trustworthy.

Votre vin est trop catholique = Your wine is too weak, (i.e. baptised with water).

Il parle en connaissance de cause = He knows what he is talking about.

Je ne veux pas y aller et pour cause = I do not want to go there, and for a very good reason.

J’ai toujours pris fait et cause pour vous = I have always stood up for you, taken up the cudgels in your defence.

Il a eu gain de cause = He gained the day.

Un avocat sans cause = A briefless barrister.

Vous êtes hors de cause = You are not concerned in the matter; This has nothing to do with you.

Il est sujet à caution = He is not to be relied upon.

[Caution, meaning “bail,” implies that he cannot be trusted except on bail.]

A ce que je vois = As far as I can judge.

Ce que je sais, c’est que c’est un voleur = All I know is that he is a thief.

Sur ce il s’en alla = After that he went away.

Ce que c’est que de nous! = What poor mortals we are!

*Bonne renommée vaut mieux que ceinture dorée = A good name is better than riches; He who has lost his reputation is a dead man among the living.

[Ceinture here refers to the purse which was in, or attached to, the girdle. Compare Proverbs xxii. 1, “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches,” and “The purest treasure mortal times afford
Is spotless reputation; that away,
Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.”
Shakespeare, Richard II. i. 1.]

C’est parler cela = That is what I call talking.

C’est ceci, c’est cela = It is sometimes one thing, sometimes another.

Pour ça, non! = Not a bit of it; Certainly not.

Il est comme cela = That is his way.

C’est bien comme cela! = That is just it!!

C’est cela même! = That’s the very thing!

Pour cela même = For that very reason.

N’est-ce que cela? = Is that all?

En un mot comme en cent = Once and for all.

Je vous le donne en cent = I bet you 100 to 1 you will not guess it.

*Cent ans bannière, cent ans civière = Up to-day, down to-morrow; Every dog has his day.

[Bannière is here used as the mark of nobility. Also: Aujourd’hui chevalier, demain vacher. German: Heute mir, morgen dir. Latin: Hodie mihi, cras tibi.]

Cent ans de chagrin ne paient pas un sou de dettes = Worrying will not pay your debts.

Le scélérat se brûla la cervelle = The scoundrel blew his brains out.

[Also, more pop., “se faire sauter le caisson.”]

*A la cour du roi chacun pour soi = Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost. (See Sauver.)

Chacun cherche son semblable = Like will to like. (See Pot and Tel.)

[“Entre gens de même nature
L’amitié se fait et dure
Mais entre gens de contraire nature
Ni amour ni amitié dure.”]

Cela fait venir la chair de poule = That makes one’s flesh creep.

Je l’ai vu en chair et en os = I saw him in flesh and blood.

Ni chair ni poisson = Neither fish, flesh, nor fowl.

Être assis entre deux chaises = To fall between two stools. (See Chasser.)

Il y a bien des chambres à louer dans sa tête = He is an empty-headed fellow.

Rejeter le moucheron et avaler le chameau = To strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

Il est fou à courir les champs = He is as mad as a March hare.

Nous prendrons la clef des champs = We shall take the key of the street (i.e., run away).

Un rien le met aux champs = A trifle throws him into a passion, bewilders him.

Être aux champs = To be put out, bewildered, angry.

Prendre du champ = To take a run (before leap); To have room before one (for an effort).

[“Ils prirent du champ et coururent l’un sur l’autre avec furie.”—Chateaubriand, Dernier des Abencérages, 185.]

Chance vaut mieux que bien jouer = Luck is better than wit or brains.

Il n’est chance qui ne retourne = The luck must change.

*A chaque saint sa chandelle = Honour to whom honour is due; Every lawyer must have his fee.

Il vous doit une belle chandelle = He ought to be very grateful to you.

[An allusion to the custom of burning candles before the altars of Saints, as a mark of gratitude, considered due to them.]

Voir des chandelles (or, mille chandelles) = “To see stars.” (See Étoile.)

Donner une chandelle à Dieu et une au diable = To try and keep in with both parties.

Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle = The game is not worth the candle; It is not worth while.

[i.e., when the stakes are not sufficient to pay for the candle burnt during the game.]

*C’est une économie de bouts de chandelle = That is penny-wise and pound-foolish; That is spoiling the ship for a ha’porth (halfpennyworth) of tar; That is a cheese-paring policy.

Brûler la chandelle par les deux bouts = To burn the candle at both ends.

Donner le change = To put off the scent, to mislead.

Vous ne me ferez pas prendre le change = You will not impose upon me, put me on the wrong scent.

[Expressions taken from hunting, where the dogs leave the track of the game they have raised, to run on another scent.]

Je lui ai rendu le change = I paid him back in his own coin. (See Monnaie.)

Changer son cheval borgne contre un aveugle = To lose in an exchange.

Il en a l’air et la chanson = He looks it every inch; He has both the appearance and the actuality.

C’est l’air qui fait la chanson = Words depend much on the tone in which they are spoken; It is not so much what you say as the way in which you say it.

*Il chante toujours la même chanson = He is always harping on the same string.

[“Cantilenam eandem canere.”
Terence, Phormio, iii. 2, 10.

“Chorda qui semper oberrat eadem.”
Horace, Ars Poet., 356.]

*Tel chante qui ne rit pas = The heart may be sad though the face be gay.

C’est comme si je chantais = It is like talking to the air, preaching in the desert.

Je lui ai chanté sa gamme = I lectured him severely.

Une porte mal graissée chante = One must pay well to keep persons quiet.

Elle chante à faire pitié = She sings most wretchedly.

Chanter juste = To sing in tune.

Si ça vous chante (fam.) = If you are in the mood for it.

Voici la reine, chapeau bas! = Here is the Queen, hats off.

Le chapelet commence à se défiler = The association is beginning to break up.

Défiler (or, dire) son chapelet = To say all one has to say.

Il n’a pas gagné cela en disant son chapelet = He did not get that for nothing.

*Qui chapon mange, chapon lui vient = He that has plenty shall have more.

*Charbonnier est maître chez lui (or, chez soi) = Every one is master in his own house; An Englishman’s house is his castle.

[In the Commentaires de Blaise de Monluc, Maréchal de France (ed. Alphonse de Ruble, pour la Société de l’Histoire de France, tome iii. p. 482, Paris, 1867), in a remonstrance to the king he says: “car chacun est roy en sa maison, comme respondit le charbonnier à votre ayeul.” M. de Ruble appends this note: “François I^er, à la suite d’une chasse qui l’avait séparé de sa suite, se perdit dans une forêt et chercha un asile dans la cabane d’un charbonnier. L’homme était absent; le roi ne trouva que la charbonnière, s’empara du meilleur siège et demanda à souper. La femme voulut attendre l’arrivée de son mari. A son retour, celui-ci reprit brusquement son siège et offrit un simple escabeau au roi: ‘Je prendz cette chaise,’ dit-il, ‘parce qu’elle est à moi: Or, par droit et par raison,
Chacun est maître en sa maison.’

Le roi, charmé de n’être point reconnu, obéit à son hôte. On soupa d’un quartier de chevreuil tué en cachette, on médit du roi, des tailles qu’il venait d’ordonner et surtout de sa sévérité pour la chasse. Le lendemain, François se fit connaître. Le charbonnier se crut perdu, mais le roi le rassura, et, pour prix de son hospitalité, lui accorda de grandes faveurs, entre autres le droit de chasser. A son retour à la cour, il rapporta le récit de son aventure et surtout le proverbe qu’il venait d’apprendre.” Also in La Belle Arsène, comédie-féerie de C. S. Favart, acted before the king in 1773, we find this proverb (Act iv. Sc. 2).]

Cela est à ma charge = I have to pay for it; That falls on me.

Cela m’est à charge = That is a burden to me.

C’est entendu, à la charge d’autant (or, de revanche) = I will do the same for you; One good turn deserves another.

*Charité bien ordonnée commence par soi-même = Charity begins at home.

[“Proximus sum egomet mihi.” = I myself am nearest to myself.—Terence.]

La charité, s’il vous plaît! = Please give me a penny!

Faire Charlemagne = To leave off a winner, without giving one’s adversaries a chance of revenge.

[Génin explains this as a shortened form of faire comme Charlemagne, who died without losing any of the conquests he had made.]

Mettre la charrette (or, charrue) devant les bœufs = To put the cart before the horse.

[Lucian says: ἡ ἅμαξα τὸν βοῦν ἕλκει = The waggon drags the ox.]

Mieux vaut être cheval que charrette = Better lead than be led.

Faire un chassé-croisé = To go to and fro in all directions; to exchange places; to play at “puss in the corner.”

“Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop” = What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.

[Destouches, Le Glorieux, iii. 5. Comp. Horace, Ep. I., x. 24: “naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret,” and La Fontaine, Fables, ii. 18: “Tant le naturel a de force!
Il se moque de tout...
Qu’on lui ferme la porte au nez
Il reviendra par les fenêtres.”

Frederick the Great wrote to Voltaire (19th March 1771): “Chassez les préjugés par la porte, ils reviendront par la fenêtre.”

Also: Qui naquit chat court après les souris.]

*Qui deux choses chasse, ni l’une ni l’autre ne prend = Between two stools one falls to the ground.

Ne chassez pas deux lièvres à la fois = Do not have too many irons in the fire.

Il chasse de race = He is a chip of the old block.

Un clou chasse l’autre = One idea drives away another.

*A bon chat bon rat = A Roland for an Oliver; Tit for tat; Diamond cut diamond.

*Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide = A burnt child dreads the fire; Once bit, twice shy.

[The Jewish Rabbis said: “One bitten by a serpent is afraid of a rope’s end.”

Hesiod says: “Even a fool after suffering gets him knowledge”; the Italians: “Can scotato da l’acqua calda ha paura poi della fredda” = A dog burnt by hot water afterwards fears cold.]

J’appelle un chat un chat = I call a spade a spade. (See Appeler.)

Avoir un chat dans la gorge = To have phlegm (or, frog) in the throat; To be hoarse.

*Nous avons d’autres chats (or, chiens) à fouetter = We have other fish to fry.

Il n’y a pas là de quoi fouetter un chat = It is not worth getting angry about.

*Ne réveillons pas le chat qui dort = Let sleeping dogs lie.

*Le chat parti les souris dansent = When the cat’s away the mice will play.

*La nuit tous les chats sont gris = At night one may easily be mistaken; At night beauty is of no account; When candles are away, all cats are grey.

*Chat botté n’attrape pas de souris = A muffled cat catches no mice.

Comme chat sur braise = Like a cat on hot bricks.

Il n’y a pas un chat = There is not a soul.

Aller comme un chat maigre = To run like a lamplighter. (See Verrier.)

Faire des châteaux en Espagne = To build castles in the air.

[This expression is found from the thirteenth century. The explanation that would ascribe it to the followers of the Duc d’Anjou when he became Philippe V. of Spain must therefore be incorrect. The phrases “Châteaux en Asie, en Albanie” were also used, so that it comes to mean “to build castles in foreign countries, where one is not,” and hence “to indulge in illusions.”—Littré, s.v.

“Chatiaus en Espagne.”—Guillaume de Lorris, Roman de la Rose, l. 2530.

“De quoi sert-il de bastir des chasteaux en Espagne puisqu’il faut habiter en France?” St. François de Sales, lettre 856.]

Pleurer à chaudes larmes = To cry bitterly.

*Tomber de fièvre en chaud mal = To fall out of the frying-pan into the fire.

Cela ne me fait ni froid ni chaud = That is indifferent to me.

Il a les pieds bien chauds = He is in very easy circumstances.

*Petit chaudron, grandes oreilles = Little pitchers have long ears.

Chauffer

C’est un bain qui chauffe = There is a shower coming on.

[When it feels close, or when the sun is seen for a few minutes through the clouds, it is looked upon as a sign of rain.]

Ce n’est pas pour vous que le four chauffe = All these preparations are not for you.

Les cordonniers sont les plus mal chaussés = The shoemaker’s wife goes the worst shod.

Chauve comme mon genou (fam.) = As bald as a coot, as a billiard ball.

Elle a une grande fortune de son chef = She has a large fortune in her own right.

Faire une chose de son chef = To do a thing on one’s own responsibility.

Chemin faisant = On the way.

Le chemin de velours = The primrose path.

En tout pays il y a une lieue de mauvais chemin = (fig.) In every enterprise difficulties have to be encountered.

Il ne faut pas y aller par quatre chemins = You must not beat about the bush; You must go straight to the point; You must not mince matters; It’s no good shilly-shallying.

*Qui trop se hâte reste en chemin = The more haste, the less speed; Slow and sure wins the race. (See Hâte.)

*Le chemin le plus long est souvent le plus court = The longest way round often proves to be the shortest; A short cut may be a very long way home.

Prendre le chemin de l’école (or, des écoliers) = To take the longest way (a roundabout way).

*À chemin battu il ne croît pas d’herbe = (fig.) There is no profit in an affair in which many are engaged.

Se frayer un chemin avec les coudes = To elbow one’s way through a crowd.

Il faut faire une croix à la cheminée = “We must chalk it up” (of an event that seldom happens.)

Sous le manteau de la cheminée = Secretly, sub rosa.

*À cheval donné on ne regarde pas à la bride (or, à la dent) = One does not look a gift-horse in the mouth.

[Late Latin: “Si quis det mannos, ne quaere in dentibus annos.”]

On loge à pied et à cheval = Good entertainment (accommodation) for man and beast.

L’œil du maître engraisse le cheval = Matters prosper under the master’s eye.

[“Il n’est pour voir que l’œil du maître.”
La Fontaine, Fables, iv. 21.]

Il est aisé d’aller à pied quand on tient son cheval par la bride = It is easy to stoop from state when that state can be resumed at will.

Il n’est si bon cheval qui ne bronche = The best horse may stumble; Accidents will happen.

[Also: Il n’est si bon charretier qui ne verse.]

Il a changé son cheval borgne contre un aveugle = He has changed for the worse; He has made a bad bargain.

Monter sur ses grands chevaux = To ride the high horse.

[A reference to the big war horses used by knights in battle.]

Je lui ai écrit une lettre à cheval = I wrote him a severe letter.

Il est toujours à cheval sur l’étiquette = He is a stickler for etiquette.

Il est bon cheval de trompette = He is not easily dismayed.

Un cheval à deux fins = A horse for riding or driving.

J’ai une fièvre de cheval = I am in a high fever.

Un chevalier d’industrie = A swindler, a man who lives by his wits.

Cette comparaison est tirée par les cheveux = That comparison is somewhat far-fetched.

On ne peut prendre aux cheveux un homme rasé = One cannot get blood from a stone. (See Huile.)

En cheveux (of a woman) = Bareheaded.

[Of a man: tête nue.]

Les cheveux en brosse = Hair cut short (standing up like the bristles of a brush).

Prendre l’occasion aux cheveux = To take time by the forelock. (See Balle.)

Avoir mal aux cheveux (fam.) = To have a head (i.e. a head-ache in the morning after a drinking bout.)

Vous ne lui allez pas à la cheville = You are a pigmy compared with him; You are no match for him at all.

La cheville ouvrière = The mainspring, pivot.

*Ménager la chèvre et le chou = To run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.

[The French refers to the tale of the man in charge of a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. He came to a river which he had to cross; but the ferry-boat was so small that he could only take one of his charges with him. His difficulty was to get them across, for if he left the wolf and goat together, the wolf would eat the goat; and if he left the goat with the cabbage the goat would eat it.]

*Où la chèvre est attachée il faut qu’elle broute = One must put up with the inconveniences of one’s position if one can get nothing better; We must not expect more from life than life can give us.

*Il n’y a pas de petit chez soi = There is no place like home; Home is home, be it ever so humble; East, west, home is best.

[Also: Un petit chez soi vaut mieux qu’un grand chez les autres.

“My house, my house, though thou art small,
Thou art to me the Escuriall.”
George Herbert, Jacula Prudentium.]

C’est le chien de Jean de Nivelle, il s’enfuit quand on l’appelle = The more you call him, the more he runs away, like John de Nivelle’s dog.

[Jean de Nivelle was the eldest son of Jean II., Duc de Montmorency, and was born about 1423. Having been summoned to appear before the Judges at Paris for having espoused the cause of the Duke of Burgundy against the wishes of the king, Louis XI., and of his father, who disinherited him, he fled to Flanders, where his wife had property. He therefore became an object of scorn to the people for refusing to answer the summons of his king, and they called him chien: the saying ought to run: C’est CE chien de Jean de Nivelle. La Fontaine evidently thought the phrase referred to a real dog when he wrote:— “Une traîtresse voix bien souvent vous appelle,
Ne vous pressez donc nullement,
Ce n’était pas un sot, non, non et croyez m’en.
Que le chien de Jean de Nivelle.”
Compare the Italian:—
Far come il can d’Arlotto que chiamoto se la batte.]

*Qui veut noyer son chien l’accuse de la rage = Give your dog a bad name and hang him.

[Quos Jupiter vult perdere prius dementat.]

Je jette ma langue aux chiens = I give it up (of riddles, etc.).

[Also: Je donne ma langue aux chats.]

Nous sommes sortis entre chien et loup = We went out at dusk, between the lights.

[i.e. when you could easily mistake a wolf for a dog; or, as others say, between the time when the watch-dog is let loose and the time when the wolf comes out of the wood.]

Un chien regarde bien un évêque = A cat may look at a king.

Il fait un chien de temps (or, un temps de chien) (fam.) = It is wretched weather.

C’est saint Roch et son chien que ces deux personnes-là = These two persons are inseparable.

*Bon chien chasse de race = Like sire, like son; Cat after kind.

C’est le chien du jardinier qui ne mange pas de choux et n’en laisse pas manger aux autres = He is a dog in the manger.

Écorcher son chien pour en avoir la peau = To sacrifice something important for a small return.

Chien qui aboie ne mord pas = His bark is worse than his bite.

[Also: Tel fiert qui ne tue pas, and Chat miauleur ne fut jamais bon chasseur, non plus qu’homme sage caqueteur.]

Autant vaut être mordu d’un chien que d’une chienne = As well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb; What is the use of choosing between two evils?

On l’a reçu comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles = He was as welcome as a dog at a wedding.

*Il ne faut pas se moquer des chiens (or, du loup) avant qu’on ne soit hors du bois = Do not holloa before you are out of the wood.

Il n’attache pas ses chiens avec des saucisses = He is a regular miser.

Chien hargneux a toujours l’oreille déchirée = Quarrelsome folk are always in the wars.

Jamais bon chien n’a rongé bon os = A good dog rarely gets a good bone; Men rarely get their deserts.

Se regarder en chiens de faïence = To look at one another without talking (like stuck pigs).

Nous causions chiffons (of women) = We were chattering about dress.

Elle a une petite mine chiffonnée = She has irregular features, but her expression is pleasing.

*Chômer les fêtes avant qu’elles ne soient venues = To count one’s chickens before they are hatched.

[“Laissons venir la fête avant que la chômer.”
Molière, Le Dépit Amoureux, i. 1.]

C’est un saint qu’on ne chôme point = He is in no great repute.

[“L’honneur est un vieux saint que l’on ne chôme plus.” Régnier, Satires, xiii.]

Dites bien des choses de ma part à votre frère = Remember me kindly to your brother.

Rester tout chose = To be confused.

Il était tout chose = He was out of sorts; out of spirits; cast down.

Monsieur Chose (or, Machin) = “Mr. What’s-his-name.”

On l’envoya planter ses choux = He was dismissed.

Aller planter ses choux (or, garder les dindons) = To retire into the country.

Chou pour chou = Taking one thing with another.

[The whole expression is: Chou pour chou, Aubervilliers vaut bien Paris = Aubervilliers is as good as Paris, if it come to counting cabbages, i.e., each thing has its particular merits. Aubervilliers is a suburb of Paris, noted for its market gardens.]

Bête comme (un) chou (un pot, une cruche, une oie) = As stupid as an owl.

Mon petit chou = My little darling.

[This has nothing to do with a cabbage, but with a kind of puff pastry filled with cream, in the shape of a cabbage.]

Faire ses choux gras d’une chose = To enjoy a thing that others despise.

Remuer ciel et terre = To move heaven and earth; To leave no stone unturned.

Circulez, Messieurs! = Move on, please! (cry of policemen).

Parler clair et net = To speak plainly.

Je n’y vois pas clair = I cannot see, it is too dark.

Clair comme le jour (or, comme le soleil en plein midi) = As plain as a pikestaff; As clear as noonday.

À la rentrée des classes = When school reopens.

Mettre la clef sous la porte = To run away from one’s creditors; “To bolt.”

La clef dont on se sert est toujours claire = One does not get rusty in what one does every day.

Un pas de clerc = A blunder; A false step.

Il ne faut pas parler latin devant les clercs = Do not correct a specialist on his subject.

[“Les plus grands clercs ne sont pas les plus fins.”
Régnier, Satires, iii.]

Ses plaisanteries ne sont que des clichés = His jokes are stereotyped.

En un clin d’œil = In a twinkling.

*Qui n’entend qu’une cloche n’entend qu’un son = One should hear both sides of a question.

Il est temps de fondre la cloche = The time for action has arrived.

Déménager à la cloche de bois (fam.) = To shoot the moon; To leave a house without paying one’s rent or one’s creditors.

Il n’a jamais perdu son clocher de vue = He has never been out of his parish.

Il faut placer le clocher au milieu du village = What is meant for the benefit of all should be within reach of all.

[e.g. a lamp in the middle of the table.]

Avoir la maladie du clocher = To be homesick.

[Also more often: Avoir le mal du pays.]

Ce n’est pas mal, mais il y a encore quelque chose qui cloche = It is not bad, but there is still something wrong.

*Toute comparaison cloche [or, pèche] = Comparisons are odious.

Cela ne vaut pas un clou à soufflet = That is not worth a straw (lit. a tin-tack).

Je lui ai rivé son clou (pop.) = I shut his mouth; That was a poser for him.

[“Vous avez fort bien fait de lui river son clou.”
Regnard, Le Distrait, iv. 7.]

Un clou chasse l’autre = One idea drives away another.

Le clou de l’Exposition = The chief attraction of the Exhibition.

C’est un pays de cocagne = It is a land flowing with milk and honey.

[“Paris est pour le riche un pays de cocagne;
Sans sortir de la ville il trouve la campagne.”
Boileau, Satires, vi.]

Le mât de cocagne = The greasy pole.

C’est la mouche du coche = He is a regular busybody.

[La Fontaine, Fables, vii. 9, imitated from Æsop.]

Nous n’avons pas gardé les cochons ensemble (pop.) = We have not been dragged up together.

[The reply to a man who presumes upon acquaintance, and needs putting down.]

À contre cœur = Reluctantly.

À cœur joie = To one’s heart’s content.

De gaieté de cœur = Out of sheer wantonness.

Il l’a fait de bon cœur = He did it willingly.

Dîner par cœur = To go without a dinner; To dine with Duke Humphrey.

[Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, son of Henry IV., was renowned for his hospitality. At his death it was reported that he would have a monument in S. Paul’s, but he was buried at S. Alban’s Abbey. S. Paul’s was at that time the common lounge of the town, and when the promenaders left for dinner, those who had no dinner to go to, used to say they would stay behind and look for the monument of the Good Duke. A similar saying was, “To sup with Sir Thomas Gresham,” the Exchange, built by him, being a place of resort.]

Vous l’avez blessé au cœur = You have wounded his feelings.

C’est un crève cœur = It is a heart-rending thing.

*Loin des yeux, loin du cœur = Out of sight, out of mind.

Il a cela à cœur = 1. He is striving hard to do it. 2. He takes a lively interest in it.

Cela me tient au cœur = I have set my heart upon it.

Il a mal au cœur = He is feeling sick.

Il a une maladie de cœur = He has heart disease.

Elle fait la bouche en cœur = She puts on a captivating look; She purses up her lips.

Elle a le cœur gros = She is ready to cry; She is heavy-hearted.

Si le cœur vous en dit = If you feel like it; If you have a mind to.

Je veux en avoir le cœur net = I must clear that up.

Il a le cœur sur les lèvres = 1. He always says what he thinks (and this is always something good and kind); He is open-hearted. 2. He feels sick.

Être plein de cœur = To be full of generosity; To be noble-minded; To have a high sense of one’s duties towards others.

Avoir le cœur sur la main = To be open-hearted, frank.

Un serrement de cœur = A sinking at the heart; A feeling of oppression and sadness.

Voilà l’homme dont elle est coiffée = There is the man with whom she is smitten.

Être né coiffé = To be born with a silver spoon in one’s mouth (literally, with a caul).

Coiffer sainte Catherine = To remain an old maid.

Cet homme mourra au coin d’un bois (or, d’une haie) = That man will die in a ditch.

Il est franc du collier = (of a horse) He pulls freely; (of a man) He never shirks his work.

Reprendre le collier de misère = To return to drudgery, to the old routine.

Le feu détruisit le bâtiment de fond en comble = The fire completely gutted the building.

Elle est au comble de ses désirs = She is at the very height of her wishes.

Pour comble de malheur, il tomba malade = To crown his misfortune, he fell ill.

Venez demain, nous serons en petit comité = Come to-morrow, there will be only a few intimate friends.

Comme ci, comme ça = So-so; indifferently.

Je ne l’ai pas dit, mais c’est tout comme = I did not say so, but it is just as if I did.

C’est tout comme = It comes to the same thing.

*N’a pas fait qui commence = The beginning is not everything.

[“Qui commence le mieux ne fait rien s’il n’achève.”
Corneille.]

A moitié fait qui commence bien = Well begun is half done; A good beginning is half the battle.

[“Unes vespres bien sonnées sont à demy dictes.”
Rabelais, Gargantua, cxl.

Also: Matines bien sonnées sont à moitié dites.

Barbe bien savonnée est à moitié rasée.]

*Qui commence mal finit mal = A bad day never has a good night.

Le patron n’est pas commode (fam.) = The master (boss) knows all our tricks, is not easily taken in, is very strict, is not an easy customer to deal with.

Il m’a faussé compagnie = He gave me the slip; He did not keep his appointment.

Vous me traitez comme si j’étais compagnie = You treat me as if I were somebody.

Il n’y a si bonne compagnie qui ne se quitte = The best of friends must part.

Traiter quelqu’un de pair à compagnon = To treat any one as an equal; To be “hail-fellow-well-met” (cheek by jowl) with any one.

*Qui a compagnon a maître = One is often obliged to give way to the wishes of those with whom one is associated.

Avoir le compas dans l’œil (fam.) = To have a good eye for distances.

C’est un rusé compère = He is a sly dog, a cunning old fox. (See Fin and Mouche.)

[Other equivalents are: un fin (or, fûté) matois (vide Molière, George Dandin, i. 2, ad fin.), une fine mouche.]

Sans compliment = Really; sincerely; I mean really what I say.

Voici votre argent, voyez si vous avez votre compte = Here is your money, see if it is right.

Erreur n’est pas compte = Errors excepted.

Je renonce à ce commerce, car je n’y trouve pas mon compte = I am giving up this business, for I make nothing by it.

Ne l’offensez pas, car vous n’y trouverez pas votre compte = Do not offend him, for you would get more than you cared for.

Nous nous amusons à bon compte = We amuse ourselves at a small cost.

Vous êtes loin du compte = You are out in your reckoning.

On peut toujours à bon compte revenir = There is no harm in examining an account twice.

Je mets cela en ligne de compte = I take that into account.

Faisons un compte rond = Let us make it even money.

Pour se rendre compte de la chose = To get a clear idea of the matter.

Nous sommes de compte à demi dans l’entreprise = We are partners on equal terms in the venture; We are going halves in the venture.

À chacun son compte = To give every one his due.

Au bout du compte = Upon the whole; After all.

Enfin de compte = (lit.) When the addition is made; (fig.) When all is told; When all is said and done.

Il a son compte (or, Son compte est réglé) = 1. (lit.) He has his due. 2. (pop.) He is done for. (See Affaire.)

Il lui compte les morceaux = He grudges him the very food he eats.

*Qui compte sans son hôte compte deux fois = He who reckons without his host must reckon again; Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched. (See Chômer and Peau.)

Comptez dessus = Depend upon it.

Vous pouvez faire des commandes en mon nom jusqu’à concurrence de 5,000 francs = You can order goods in my name to the amount of £200.

Il conduit bien sa barque = (fig.) He plays his cards well.

Tous ses camarades lui firent la conduite = All his companions saw him off.

C’est le diable à confesser = It is terribly hard to do.

On lui donnerait le bon Dieu sans confession = They would trust him to any extent (because of his saintly appearance).

En connaissance de cause = Knowingly.

Je suis en pays de connaissance = I am among people I know, among old friends.

Il est connu comme le loup blanc = He is known to everybody.

Il gagne à être connu = He improves upon acquaintance.

Je ne le connais ni d’Ève ni d’Adam = I do not know him from Adam.

Je ne le connais ni de près ni de loin = I do not know him at all.

En chiffres connus = In plain figures.

Vous y connaissez-vous en vins? = Are you a judge of wine?

Je m’y connais = I understand all about it; I am an authority on it.

Connu! (fam.) = That is an old tale.

Je la connais, celle-là (pop.) = That is nothing new; I’ve been “had” before.

*À parti pris pas de conseil = Advice is useless to one who has made up his mind.

*La nuit porte conseil = Sleep upon it; Time will show a plan.

Il a bientôt assemblé son conseil = He makes up his mind without consulting any one.

“Aimez qu’on vous conseille et non pas qu’on vous loue” = Prefer advice to praise.

[Boileau, Art Poétique, i. 192.]

*Qui ne dit mot consent = Silence gives consent.

Cela ne tire pas à conséquence = That is of no importance.

Des contes à dormir debout = Tedious, nonsensical tales; Old wives’ tales.

*Contentement passe richesse = Enough is as good as a feast.

Il vous en conte de belles = He is deceiving you finely; He is telling you fine tales.

Vous êtes porté sur le contrôle = Your name is placed on the roll.

Une chaîne contrôlée = A hall-marked chain.

Vous prêchez un converti = You are talking to a man who thinks with you.

Il est comme un coq en pâte = He is in clover.

[Lit. one kept separately from the others to be fattened; pâte is its food. Comme rats en paille is sometimes used.]

Il est le coq du village = He is the cock of the walk.

Des coq-à-l’âne = Cock and bull stories; Disconnected rigmaroles.

À qui vendez-vous vos coquilles? = Tell that to the marines. (See Autre.)

[Charles d’Orléans, Rondeau, 148.]

Rentrer dans sa coquille = To draw in one’s horns.

Il fait bien valoir ses coquilles = He praises his goods too much.

À cor et à cri = With hue and cry; Vehemently.

Demander à cor et à cri = To clamour for.

Être au bout de sa corde (or, son rouleau) = To be at the end of one’s tether; To have no more to say.

Vous verrez beau jeu si la corde ne rompt = You will see fine fun if no accident happens, if no hitch occurs.

Cette affaire a passé à fleur de corde = That business only just succeeded.

Cet homme file sa corde = That man will bring himself to the gallows.

Il ne faut pas parler de corde dans la maison d’un pendu = We must not make personal remarks; We must not allude to the skeleton in the cupboard. (See Boiteux.)

Il a de la corde de pendu dans sa poche = He has the devil’s own luck.

[A piece of the rope with which a man had been hanged was, and is even now, considered as a charm against ill-luck. Archbishop Trench adduces other proverbs in reference to the man whose luck never forsakes him, so that from the very things which would be another man’s ruin, he extricates himself not only without harm but with credit: e.g. the Arabic: “Cast him into the Nile, and he will come up with a fish in his mouth”; the German: “Würf er einen Groschen aufs Dach, fiel ihm ein Taler herunter” = If he threw a penny on to the roof, a dollar would come back to him.]

Il tient la corde = He is leading; He is first favourite.

Vous touchez la corde sensible = You are touching the sore point.

Ne touchez pas cette corde = (fig.) Do not speak of that.

Cela est usé jusqu’à la corde = (lit.) That is worn threadbare; (fig.) That is thoroughly hackneyed.

Aux États-Unis les rues sont tirées au cordeau = In the United States the streets are perfectly straight.

Cordon, s’il vous plaît = Open the door, please (to porters in Paris).

Ne faites pas de cornes à ce livre = Do not dog’s-ear that book.

Bayer aux corneilles = To stare (or, gape) about vacantly.

C’est un drôle de corps = He is an odd fellow, a queer fish.

Nous verrons ce qu’il a dans le corps = We will see what he is made of.

Il s’est jeté à corps perdu dans cette affaire = He threw himself headlong (or, with might and main) into the matter.

Je le saisis à bras le corps = I seized him round the waist (in a struggle).

Ils se sont battus corps à corps = They fought hand to hand.

Je l’ai fait à mon corps défendant = I did it reluctantly, in self-defence.

Prendre du corps = To get fat.

Il a l’âme chevillée dans le corps = He has as many lives as a cat.

*À corsaire, corsaire et demi = Set a thief to catch a thief.

[“Ars deluditur arte.”—Cato.

“A trompeur, trompeur et demy.”—Charles d’Orléans, Rondel, 46.]

*Corsaires contre corsaires ne font pas leurs affaires = Dog does not eat dog. (See Loup.)

[“Corsaires contre corsaires,
L’un l’autre s’attaquant ne font pas leurs affaires.”— La Fontaine, Tribut envoyé par les animaux à Alexandre, imitating Régnier, Satire xii., ad fin., who took it from the Spanish De corsario a corsario no se llevan que los barriles.]

C’est une vraie corvée! = What a nuisance! What a bore!

[Corvée originally referred to feudal forced labour. It is now a military term, and means “fatigue duty”; hence, any unpleasant task.]

On lui compterait les côtes = He is nothing but skin and bone.

Être sur le côté (or, flanc) = To be on one’s back, ill.

Mettre les rieurs de son côté = To turn the laugh against a man.

Vous êtes du bon côté = You are on the right side.

Vous êtes du côté du manche = You are on the winning side.

Donner à côté = To miss the mark.

Depuis sa faillite il file un mauvais coton (fam.) = Since his failure, his health (or, reputation) has entirely broken down.

On est plus couché que debout = Life is short compared with eternity.

Je l’ai couché en joue = I aimed at him.

Coucher dans son fourreau = To go to sleep without undressing; To turn in all standing (nav.).

*Comme on fait son lit, on se couche = As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.

Se coucher comme les poules = To go to bed with the sun, very early.

Coucher sur la dure = To lie on the ground, on the floor.

Il ne se mouche pas du coude (fam.) = 1. He is no fool. 2. He does things in grand style. (See Pied.)

Il a mal au coude (fam.) = He is very lazy. (See Main.)

Avoir les coudées franches = (lit.) To have elbow-room; (fig.) To have full scope.

On ne sait quelle pièce y coudre = One does not know how to prevent (or, cure) it.

C’est un homme à la coule (pop.) = He is a smart, knowing chap.

[Compare: Il la connaît dans les coins, celui-là = He knows his business in every corner.]

Ce qu’il dit coule de source = What he says comes from the heart, comes fluently from his lips.

Cela coule de source = That follows naturally.

Couler à fond = (of ships) To founder; (of persons) To be ruined.

*Il faut laisser couler l’eau = What can’t be cured must be endured.

Faire les yeux en coulisse = To make sheep’s eyes; To ogle.

*Faire d’une pierre deux coups = To kill two birds with one stone.

Cette démarche a porté coup = That step told, had its effect.

Sans coup férir = Without striking a blow.

Il a fait un bon coup = He has made a good bargain.

Il vient de faire un mauvais coup = He has just committed a crime.

Pour le coup il ne m’échappera pas = This time he will not escape me.

J’irai à coup sûr = I shall go to a certainty.

C’est donner un coup d’épée dans l’eau = It is an unsuccessful attempt. (See Eau.)

Il m’a porté un coup fourré = He struck me a blow in the dark.

[This is a term derived from fencing; un coup fourré is a blow struck at an adversary at the same moment that he strikes.]

Le coup vaut la balle = It is worth trying.

Il faut toujours qu’elle donne son coup de patte = She always makes sarcastic (or, unpleasant) remarks.

C’est un coup monté = It is a pre-arranged affair.

On lui a monté le coup = They induced him to do it; They deceived him.

Il a bu un coup de trop = He has had a drop too much.

C’est venu après coup = It came too late, after the event.

Faire les cent coups = To amuse oneself noisily; To play all sorts of tricks.

Être aux cent coups = To be half mad (distracted) with anxiety; To be in the greatest difficulties.

C’est un coup qui porte = That is a home-thrust.

Avoir un coup de marteau = To be a little touched.

J’ai écrit trois lettres coup sur coup = I wrote three letters one after the other.

Un coup de sang = A rush of blood to the head.

Un coup de Jarnac = A treacherous blow; A blow below the belt.

[In a duel before the whole Court in 1547, Gui Chabot, Seigneur de Jarnac, wounded his adversary, La Châtaigneraie, with an unfair stroke. La Châtaigneraie refused to survive such an affront, tore off the bandages placed over his wound, and bled to death.]

Un coup de fouet = (lit.) A crack of a whip; (fig.) A sudden contraction of the muscles of the leg (or back).

Un coup d’état = A sudden, unexpected act of policy; A violent change in the Government (e.g. 18 brumaire 1799, or 2 décembre 1851).

Un coup de fion (fam.) = A finishing touch.

Donner le coup de grâce = To give the finishing stroke.

Il gagna mille francs tout d’un coup = He won £40 at one shot, all at once, at one “go.”

Il s’en alla tout à coup = He went away suddenly, abruptly.

[Tout d’un coup and tout à coup are frequently used indiscriminately, even by French people.]

Un coup de tête = A moment of passion; a rash action.

Donner un coup de main = To give a helping hand.

J’ai manqué mon coup = I missed my shot; I failed.

Ils l’ont moulu de coups = They beat him black and blue.

[A well-known quotation from Corneille runs: “Mes pareils à deux fois ne se font pas connaître
Et pour leurs coups d’essai veulent des coups de maître.”—Le Cid, ii. 2.]

*Il y a loin de la coupe aux lèvres = There is many a slip ’twixt the cup and the lip.

[The Greek πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου is said to have had its origin in the following circumstances:—Anceaus, an ancient King of Samos, treated with extreme cruelty his slaves who were planting a vineyard for him; until at length one more ill-used than the rest prophesied that for his cruelty he should never drink of its wine. When the first vintage was over the master bade this slave fill him a goblet, and, taking it in his hands, he taunted him with the failure of his prophecy. The slave answered with these words; and as he was speaking news was brought of a huge wild boar that was wasting the vineyard. Setting down the untasted cup and snatching up a spear the master went out to meet the wild boar and was slain in the encounter. Compare the Latin: Inter calicem et os multa cadunt; and the Spanish: De la mano a la boca se pierde la sopa.

Other variants in French are: Entre la bouche et le verre
Le vin souvent tombe à terre.
Vin versé n’est pas avalé.
En amour, en cour, et à la chasse.
Chacun ne prend ce qu’il pourchasse.]

Mettre en coupe réglée = (lit.) To cut down periodically (of forests); (fig.) To lay regularly under contribution.

Il s’est coupé dans ses réponses = He contradicted himself in his answers.

Il lui a coupé la parole = He interrupted him.

Son père lui a coupé les vivres = His father stopped his allowance.

Ce verre de bière m’a coupé les jambes = My legs feel shaky after that glass of beer.

Couper un cheveu en quatre = To split hairs.

Coupons le câble = Let us take the decisive step.

[Sieyès, June 10, 1789.]

Cela lui a coupé le sifflet (pop.) = That stopped his mouth; That shut him up.

Je vais y couper (pop.) = I am going to “cut” that; I am not going to do it.

Prenez votre courage à deux mains = Summon up all your courage.

Courage! tout finira bien = Cheer up! all will yet be well.

Je vous écrirai fin courant (commercial) = I will write to you at the end of the present month.

Je ne suis pas au courant de l’affaire = I have not the latest information on the point; I am not up (well posted) in the matter.

Par le temps qui court = Nowadays; As times go.

Être fou à courir les champs = To be as mad as a March hare.

Nous courons même fortune = We are rowing in the same boat.

“Rien ne sert de courir, il faut partir à point” = It is no good hurrying if you have not started in time.

[La Fontaine, Le lièvre et la tortue, vi. 10.]

Répondez par retour du courrier = Answer by return of post.

Faire son courrier (commercial) = To write one’s letters.

Il faut lui serrer la courroie = We must curtail his allowance; We must keep him on short commons.

Faire du cuir d’autrui large courroie = To be generous with other people’s money.

Les pièces des États du Pape n’ont plus cours = The coins of the Papal States are no longer legal tender.

Un capitaine au long cours = A captain of a trading vessel going to foreign ports.

Je suis resté court = I did not know what to say.

Je l’ai pris à court = I took him unawares.

Il se trouve à court (d’argent) = He is short of money.

Dites cela tout court = Say that and no more.

Il l’a appelé Jean tout court = He called him simply (or, just) John (without Mr. or surname).

Ils sont à couteaux tirés = They are at daggers drawn.

[Formerly: Ils en sont aux couteaux tirés.]

Aller en Flandre sans couteau = To embark in an enterprise without the necessary resources.

[Also: Aller aux mûres sans crochet.]

C’est comme le couteau de Jeannot = That is like the Irishman’s gun (said of anything that has been mended so often as to have nothing of the original left).

Rien ne lui coûte = He sticks at nothing; He spares no trouble.

Coûte que coûte = Cost what it may.

Coûter les yeux de la tête = To cost a small fortune, a fearful lot of money.

*Une fois n’est pas coutume = It is only this once; One swallow does not make a summer; Once does not count.

Il est coutumier du fait = It is not the first time he has done it.

Ils étaient battus à plate couture = They were beaten hollow.

Couvercle digne du chaudron = The lid matches the caldron; They are a precious pair; Arcades ambo.

Mettez le couvert = Lay the cloth (for dinner).

Mettez un couvert de plus = Put another knife and fork (for another guest); Lay for one more.

C’est son père tout craché (fam.) = He is the very spit (or, less fam., image) of his father.

Il a craché en l’air et ça lui est retombé sur le nez (pop.) = He wished to do harm to another but it recoiled on himself.

Il ne crache pas dessus = He does not despise it; He likes it very much.

Pendre la crémaillère = To give a house warming.

[Crémaillère = tige de fer suspendue au dessus du foyer d’une cheminée garnie de crans, qui permettent de la fixer plus ou moins haut, et terminée par un bout recourbé auquel on accroche une marmite. Compare Longfellow’s poem “The Hanging of the Crane.”]

Le roi Jean a crevé les yeux à Arthur = King John caused Arthur’s eyes to be put out.

Je ne voyais pas mon livre, cependant il me crevait les yeux = I did not see my book, yet it was staring me in the face (right under my nose).

Il n’y a qu’un cri sur son compte = There is only one opinion about him.

Elle poussa les hauts cris = She screamed at the top of her voice; She complained loudly.

C’est le dernier cri = It is the last thing out.

Criblé de mitraille = Riddled with grape-shot.

Criblé de dettes = Over head and ears in debt.

Crier famine sur un tas de blé = To cry out for what one has in plenty.

Plumer la poule sans la faire crier = To fleece a person adroitly, without his perceiving it.

Un républicain à tous crins = Every inch a republican.

[Properly of a horse with flowing mane and tail, hence thorough, strong.]

Il a trente ans, et cependant il vit aux crochets de sa mère = He is thirty years old, and yet his mother has to keep him.

Il s’en croit beaucoup = He thinks a great deal of himself.

C’est à n’y pas croire = It is not to be believed; It is so extraordinary (incredible, preposterous) that we can hardly believe it.

A l’en croire il a eu tous les prix = If he is to be believed he won all the prizes.

“Et chacun croit fort aisément
Ce qu’il craint et ce qu’il désire.”
= The wish is father to the thought.

[La Fontaine, Fables, i. 6. Le loup et le renard.

Compare 2 Henry IV., iv. 5.

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.”—Cæsar, iii. 18.]

Aller au devant de quelqu’un avec la croix et la bannière = To receive any one with great fuss and ceremony (often used ironically).

Votre enfant est gentil à croquer = Your child is a charming little fellow.

Il croquait le marmot = He was dancing attendance; He was cooling his heels.

[Littré gives as the explanation of this obscure expression that artists while waiting for their patrons used to draw pictures of little monkeys (marmot) in the vestibule. Others assert that in the antechambers of the rich were to be found dishes of cakes in the form of little monkeys, which visitors used to eat (croquer) whilst waiting. But both explanations need confirmation.]

S’agenouiller à cru = To kneel on the bare ground, on the cold stone (without a hassock or carpet).

[Literally, to kneel on the bare knee, but the quality has passed from the person to the object.]

C’est de son cru = That is of his own creation.

C’est une vraie cruche (fam.) = She is a silly goose.

Pester entre cuir et chair (fam.) = To fume inwardly.

Faire des cuirs = To drop one’s h’s.

[Really these are faults made by uneducated French people in pronunciation, consisting in sounding s for t, or vice versa, when running their words together or in pronouncing these letters when they do not occur, as: ils étaient zici, for ils étaient ici.]

Les observations glissent sur lui comme sur une cuirasse = Blame slips off him as water off a duck’s back.

Vous viendrez cuire à mon four = Some day you will need my assistance.

Il vous en cuira = You will smart for it.

Avoir son pain cuit = To have one’s bread and cheese, a competency.

*Au bout du fossé la culbute = At the end of the run comes the fall.

[This expression refers to those who, from carelessness or wrong-headedness, are resigned to the consequences of their bad conduct.]

Cuver son vin = To sleep oneself sober.

Une grande dame de par le monde = A great lady in the eyes of the world.

[This should be written Une grande dame de la part du monde. Littré points out that the error in spelling par for part is a very old one; it would appear to date from the thirteenth century from the examples he quotes. De par le monde must be derived from de parte mundi, as de per was never used.]

Damer le pion à quelqu’un = To outwit some one.

[From the game of draughts, dame = a king, pion = a man.]

Cet homme est son âme damnée = That man does his dirty work for him, is his tool.

[The man who does the dirty work knows he is damning his soul by doing it, but does it all the same for the money or interest it brings him.]

Il n’y a pas de danger = No fear of that; Don’t you fret!

Il ne sait sur quel pied danser = He does not know which way to turn.

Il en dansera en l’air = He will swing for it.

Danser devant le buffet = To have nothing to eat.

Cet événement date de loin = That event happened long ago.

A vous le dé = It is your turn to play (at dice). [See Avoir.]

Ne nous flattez pas le dé = Speak out without any reserve.

[Flatter le dé is to let the dice slide gently out of the box.]

“Car madame à jaser tient le dé tout le jour” = Madame engrosses the conversation all day long.

[Molière, Tartufe, i. 1.]

Ils laissèrent tout à la débandade = They left all at sixes and sevens, in confusion.

Fuir à la débandade = To fly helter-skelter.

Le ministre lui a accordé un débit de tabac = The minister has given him a license to sell tobacco.

[The sale of tobacco, snuff, gunpowder, and cards is a Government monopoly in France.]

*Mieux vaut goujat debout qu’empereur enterré = “A living dog is better than a dead lion.”—Ecclesiastes ix. 4.

[La Fontaine, La Matrone d’Éphèse. Goujat first meant a soldier’s servant (as here), now it means a hodman, or bricklayer’s apprentice, hence a vulgar, coarse fellow, a bungler.]

Cela ne tient pas debout = That won’t hold water.

Il a écrit vingt pages sans débrider = He has written twenty pages at a stretch.

Il ne faut pas se déchausser pour manger cela = It is not worth while sitting down to eat that.

[The ancients were in the habit of reclining bare-foot at their meals.]

*Décoiffer (Découvrir) St. Pierre pour coiffer St. Paul = To rob Peter to pay Paul.

On a découvert le pot aux roses = They have discovered the mystery, the secret.

Être à découvert = To be unprotected, undisguised.

Un décrochez-moi-ça (pop.) = A reach-me-down (second-hand garment).

Elle est tout en dedans = She is not communicative.

On l’a mis dedans (fam.) = 1. They took him in (i.e. they deceived him). 2. They ran him in (i.e. they put him in prison).

[The second meaning is more often translated: “On l’a coffré.”]

Comme un nigaud, j’ai donné dedans = Like a goose, I fell into the trap.

Je ne sais si je suis dedans ou dehors = I do not know which side to take; I do not know whether I have made a profit or not.

Il a le visage défait = He has a pale, worn-out look.

Cette marchandise est d’une bonne défaite = These goods have a quick sale.

Attaquez-le au défaut de la cuirasse = Attack him on his weak point.

Défense d’afficher = Stick no bills.

Défense d’entrer = No admittance.

Défense d’entrer sous peine d’amende = Trespassers will be prosecuted.

Être brave jusqu’au dégainer = To be brave until it come to blows.

[Dégainer = to unsheathe a sword.]

Ils auront à se dégourdir ou à déguerpir = They will either have to wake up or to clear out.

Se dégourdir les jambes = To stretch one’s legs; To go out for a run.

Faire le dégoûté = To be fastidious, dainty.

Si j’avais la fortune de Rothschild, je serais content.—Vous n’êtes pas dégoûté! = If I had Rothschild’s fortune I should be satisfied.—I should rather think so!

Sauver le dehors = To save appearances.

Il n’a pas de dehors = His personal appearance is not prepossessing; He looks nobody.

En flagrant délit = In the very act; red-handed.

[Lat. In flagrante delicto.]

Déloger sans tambour ni trompette = To leave without beat of drum.

Avec lui c’est toujours demain = He always procrastinates.

*A beau demandeur beau refuseur = Diamond cut diamond.

[i.e. “If you are not ashamed to ask, I am not ashamed to refuse.”]

La langue lui démange = He longs to speak; He is dying to put in a word.

Cet homme n’a pas un denier vaillant = That man is not worth a brass farthing.

Rendre compte à livres, sous et deniers = To give an account to the uttermost farthing.

J’ai les dents bien longues aujourd’hui = I am very hungry to-day.

Je suis sur les dents = I am done up.

J’ai une dent contre lui = I have a grudge against him.

[Also: Je lui garde un chien de ma chienne (pop.).]

Autant prendre la lune avec les dents = You might just as well try and scale the moon.

Manger du bout des dents = To eat without an appetite; To eat daintily.

[“Dente superbo.”—Horace, Satires, ii. 6, 87. Compare: rire du bout des dents.]

Déchirer quelqu’un à belles dents = To tear a person’s reputation to shreds.

[Also more forcibly: Passer quelqu’un à tabac.]

*Les folles dépenses refroidissent la cuisine = Wilful waste makes woeful want.

Qu’il ne vous en déplaise = With your permission; By your leave; If you’ll allow me; An it please you.

[Sometimes shortened to: Ne vous déplaise, as in La Fontaine, Fables, i. 1. The sense is often ironical, and means, “whether you like it or not.”]

Au dépourvu = Unprepared.

Courir comme un dératé = To go like a shot; To run like mad.

[Rate=spleen. The Greeks believed that men and animals ran faster if their spleen was removed. “On sait que l’extirpation de la rate se pratiquait chez les coureurs d’antiquité pour éviter l’essoufflement.”—Couvreur, Les Merveilles du Corps humain. Comp. Pliny, xxvi. 13.]

Une représentation du dernier vulgaire = A display vulgar to the last degree; A very low show.

[“Ce que vous dites là est du dernier bourgeois.”
Molière, Les Précieuses Ridicules, sc. 5.]

*Plus on désire une chose, plus elle se fait attendre = A watched pot never boils.

Cela laisse à désirer = There is room for improvement.

Je suis désorienté = 1. I am disconcerted. 2. I am out of my element; I do not feel at home; I have lost my bearings.

Je n’ai pas desserré les dents = I never opened my lips.

Par dessus le marché = Into the bargain; Over and above.

Il n’y a rien au dessus de cela = That beats everything.

Sens dessus dessous = All upside down; Topsy-turvy.

Ils ont eu le dessus = They got the best of it.

[Avoir le dessous = to get the worst of it.]

Prendre le dessus = To gain the upper hand.

J’en ai par dessus la tête = I am worried out of my life with it.

Il le fera par dessus l’épaule = He will never do it.

[Comp. “over the left,” in schoolboy slang.]

Il m’a regardé par dessus l’épaule = He looked at me contemptuously.

On n’échappe pas à sa destinée = He that is born to be hanged will never be drowned.

Il est dur à la détente = (fig.) He is close-fisted, a miser.

Il a l’air d’un déterré = He looks as pale as death, as pale as a ghost.

Faire un détour = To go a roundabout way.

Il est sans détour = He is straightforward.

Il est criblé de dettes = He is head over ears in debt.

[For criblé one finds accablé, perdu, or abîmé.]

Des dettes criardes = Small debts to trades-people or workmen (who are continually asking for their money).

J’en ai fait mon deuil = I have resigned myself to the loss of it.

Maintenant, à nous deux! = Now I will settle with you; Now is the time for a private explanation; Now to business.

*Deux s’amusent, trois s’embêtent (fam.) = Two’s company, three’s none.

Tous les deux jours; De deux jours l’un = Every other day.

Piquer des deux = To spur on one’s horse; To rush forward.

*Les premiers vont devant = First come, first served.

Il faut prendre les devants = One must be first in the field.

Allons au-devant de lui = Let us go and meet him.

Mathurin dévide le jars (pop.) = Jack Tar is spinning a yarn.

Il doit au tiers et au quart (à Jean et à Paul) = He owes money to everybody.

Il doit plus d’argent qu’il n’est gros = He owes more money than he can pay.

*Qui a terme ne doit rien = No one need pay before a debt is due.

*Qui ne doit rien n’a rien à craindre = Out of debt, out of danger.

*A chacun son dû = Give the devil his due; Every man is worth his hire.

*Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra = Do your duty, come what may.

Dussé-je en mourir = Were I to die for it.

Chose convenue, chose due = A promise must be kept.

J’ai jeté mon dévolu sur cela = I have fixed my choice upon that.

Il n’est de dévotion que de jeune prêtre = Enthusiasm wears out in time; New brooms sweep clean. (See Balai.)

C’est le diable qui bat sa femme et qui marie sa fille = It is raining and the sun is shining at the same time.

Tirer le diable par la queue = To be always hard up for a living.

Faire le diable à quatre = To make a terrible noise; To play all sorts of tricks. (See Quatre.)

Le diable chante la grand’messe = He hides his vices under the cloak of religion.

C’est le diable à confesser = It is terribly hard to do.

Il a le diable au corps = He is never still, quite unmanageable, very energetic.

C’est un air de porter le diable en terre = It is an air to conjure up the devil.

*Il n’est pas si diable qu’il est noir = The devil is not as black as he is painted.

[Or: Le diable n’est pas si noir qu’il en a l’air.]

Se démener comme un diable dans un bénitier = To rush about half-mad.

Loger le diable dans sa bourse = To be penniless. (See Bourse.)

[“Et logeant le diable en sa bourse,
C’est à dire, n’y logeant rien.”
La Fontaine, Fables, ix. 16.]

Quand le diable fut vieux il se fit ermite = The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be, The devil was well, the devil a monk was he!

[Compare the Italian:

Passata il punto, gabbato il santo = The peril past, the saint mocked.

Also: The river past and God forgotten.]

Aller au diable Vauvert (corrupted into au vert) = To go very far away, a devil of a way; To disappear.

[The Carthusians having been given a large building at Gentilly by St. Louis, coveted the abandoned mansion of Vauvert (= vallon vert), which they could see from their windows. But to ask for it without a valid reason was to court refusal. So they caused it to be haunted by evil spirits, and the king was soon glad to get rid of this uncanny possession. It is needless to add that the spirits were exorcised directly the monks took possession. It stood in the rue de Vauvert, beyond the Luxembourg, which was until lately called the rue d’Enfer. As this was then a remote suburb of Paris, the expression was equivalent to going to the end of the town, and thus, very far off.]

C’est là le diable (or, le hic) = There is the rub.

Elle a la beauté du diable = All her beauty consists in her youth and freshness.

Fait à la diable (i.e. à la manière du diable) = Done anyhow, in a slipshod way.

À Dieu ne plaise! = God forbid!

Jurer ses grands dieux = To affirm vehemently; To swear by all that one holds sacred.

*Ce qui est différé n’est pas perdu = All is not lost that is delayed.

[German: Aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben.]

Voyager par la diligence d’Adam = To travel on shanks’ nag.

[German: Auf Schusters Rappen.]

C’est un franc dindon = He is a thorough goose.

Être le dindon de la farce = To be the dupe.

Pour tout dire = In a word.

C’est tout dire = That is saying all, enough.

[e.g. “Cet homme est-il honnête?”—“Je lui ai prêté 500 fr. il y a deux ans et il n’a jamais voulu me rendre un sou. C’est tout dire.”]

Pour ainsi dire = So to speak.

Je ne vous dis que ça = I cannot tell you any more, but it is a fact.

[This can also be translated: “I can tell you!” as in “Je me suis bien amusé, je ne vous dis que ça!”]

Pour mieux dire = Or rather.

Je me le suis tenu pour dit = I took it for granted.

Soit dit entre nous = Quite between ourselves.

Cela est bon à dire, mais... = That is all very well for a speech, but...; That is all very fine, but...

Il est sensible au qu’en dira-t-on = He is sensitive to public opinion; He is easily influenced by what people say about him, by what Mrs. Grundy will say.

Il était dit que j’arriverais trop tard = The Fates had willed that I should come too late.

Quand je vous le disais! (or, Je vous l’avais bien dit!) = I told you so!

Ah! vous m’en direz tant! = 1. Well, that alters the case! 2. Ah! now I understand, why did you not say so at first? 3. There’s no going against such a reason as that.

[This expression has almost as many meanings as n’est-ce pas. The above are a few of them. It is often used ironically.]

A qui le dites-vous? = Am I not perfectly aware of it? Don’t I know it?

Au dire de tout le monde = According to what everybody says; According to the general opinion.

Je l’irai dire à Rome = It is so unlikely, that if it happens I will undertake a pilgrimage to Rome; I’ll eat my hat.

[Comp. Racine, Épigramme III. Sur Andromaque.]

Cela ne me dit rien = That has no effect upon me; I have no desire for it.

On nous donna du vin à discrétion = They gave us as much wine as we wanted (wine ad libitum).

La distance grandit tout prestige =
“’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.”
[Campbell, Pleasures of Hope, i. 7.]

Je lui ai donné sur les doigts = I rapped his knuckles (lit. and fig.).

Il y met les quatre doigts et le pouce = (lit.) He eats greedily; (fig.) He acts clumsily.

Ils sont comme les deux doigts de la main = They are hand and glove together, inseparable.

Vous avez mis le doigt dessus = You have hit the right nail on the head; You have touched the spot.

Mon petit doigt me l’a dit = A little bird told me so.

Il était à deux doigts de la mort = He was at death’s door, within an ace of death.

Se fourrer le doigt dans l’œil jusqu’au coude (pop.) = To deceive oneself most blindly; To put one’s foot in it.

Savoir sur le bout du doigt = To know perfectly; To have at one’s finger-ends.

Il lui obéit au doigt et à l’œil = He is at his beck and call.

Un doigt de vin (fam.) = A toothful of wine.

C’est dommage! = What a pity.

Ils lui en ont donné tout du long de l’aune = They beat him black and blue.

Je vous le donne en dix = I bet you ten to one you will not guess it.

*Qui donne tôt donne deux fois = He gives twice who gives in a trice.

[“Bis dat qui celeriter dat.”—Publius Syrus. Cito, which is now used instead of celeriter, appears to be a later alteration.]

Le régiment a donné = The regiment has engaged.

On ne lui donnerait pas quarante ans = You would not take him for forty.

On t’en donnera des tabliers propres pour les salir = You ask too much.

J’ai passé quinze jours à Paris et je m’en suis donné = I spent a fortnight in Paris, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

[This idiom implies movement, excitement, &c.]

Dormir sur les deux oreilles = (lit.) To sleep soundly; (fig.) To have no cause for anxiety.

Dormir comme une marmotte, comme un sabot, comme une souche, les (or, à) poings fermés = To sleep like a top, like a log.

Dormir la grasse matinée = To lie late in bed.

Il nous a dit des contes à dormir debout = He told us tedious, nonsensical tales, old wives’ tales.

[“Γραῶν ὕθλος.”—Plato, Rep. 350 E.

“Aniles fabellae.”—Cicero.]

*Qui dort dîne = Sleeping is as good as eating.

*Qui a renommée de se lever matin peut dormir jusqu’à midi = A good reputation covers a multitude of sins.

Dormir en gendarme = To sleep with one eye open.

*Il ne se laisse pas manger la laine sur le dos = He is not the man to let himself be made a fool of; He will not allow people to take the food out of his mouth; He will not tamely submit to any imposition.

Le juge les a renvoyés dos à dos = The judge nonsuited them both.

Il fait le gros dos = He gives himself airs.

En dos d’âne = Sloping on both sides, sharp-ridged.

Je me suis mis le juge à dos = I have made an enemy of the judge.

J’en ai plein le dos (pop.) = I am sick and tired of it.

Il a bon dos = His back is broad enough to stand a good deal.

C’est un double coquin = He is a thorough rascal.

C’est un homme double = He is a double-faced man.

*Plus fait douceur que violence = Kindness does more than harshness; More flies are caught with honey than with vinegar.

[La Fontaine, Fables, vi. 3.]

Il faudra le prendre en douceur = You must tackle him gently.

Cela ne fait aucun doute = There is no doubt about it.

Dans le doute abstiens-toi = When in doubt, do nothing.

Je ne me doutais de rien = I did not suspect anything.

Je m’en doutais = I thought so.

C’est un poète comme on en trouve à la douzaine = He is a very minor poet.

[Régnier, Sat. iv.]

Tenir la dragée haute à quelqu’un = To make a person pay well (or, wait a long time) for what he desires.

Cette femme est un vrai dragon = 1. That woman is a virago. 2. That woman is very masculine (in appearance and manners).

Je suis dans de beaux draps = I am in a fine mess, in a pretty pickle.

Il voudrait avoir le drap et l’argent = He would like to have his cake and eat it too.

Elle a déjà un fils sous les drapeaux = She already has a son in the army.

Remettez ceci à qui de droit = Give this to the proper person, to the person who has a right to it.

Il fera droit à votre demande = He will accede to your request.

Il fait son droit = He is studying for the bar.

C’est un drôle de corps = He is a queer fish.

C’est un mauvais drôle = He is a downright scamp.

Frapper fort et dru = To strike with might and main.

*Il n’est pire eau que l’eau qui dort = Still waters run deep.

*C’est porter de l’eau à la mer (or, rivière) = It is carrying coals to Newcastle.

[The Greek equivalent was Γλαῦκας εἰς Αθήνας = Owls to Athens; the Hebrew “Enchantments to Egypt,” and the Late Latin “Indulgences to Rome.”]

Cet homme aime à pêcher en eau trouble = That man likes fishing in troubled waters.

*Ils se ressemblent comme deux gouttes d’eau = They are as like as two peas.

Tout va à vau l’eau = All is going to wreck and ruin.

[A vau l’eau = With the current.]

Pendant l’inondation le toit de cette maison était à fleur d’eau = During the flood the top of that house was on a level with the water.

C’est un donneur d’eau bénite de cour = He makes empty promises.

Les eaux sont basses chez lui = He is hard up; He is in low water.

C’est donner un coup d’épée dans l’eau = It is useless trouble, an unsuccessful attempt.

[“Ἐν ὕδατι γράφειν.”—Plato, Phaedrus, 276 C.]

Faire venir l’eau au moulin = To bring grist to the mill.

Faire venir l’eau à la bouche = To make one’s mouth water.

*L’eau va toujours au moulin = Property always goes to those who have some already; Money makes money; Nothing succeeds like success.

D’ici là il passera bien de l’eau sous le pont = It will be a long time before that happens.

Mettre de l’eau dans son vin = (fig.) To come down a peg.

*L’eau qui tombe goutte à goutte cave la pierre = Dropping water will wear away a stone.

[Ovid begins a line with “Gutta cavat lapidem” an abbreviation of the proverb “Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo.”

“Stillicidi casus lapidem cavat.”—Lucretius, i. 313.]

*Une goutte d’eau suffit pour faire déborder un vase plein = The last straw breaks the camel’s back.

Nager entre deux eaux = (lit.) To swim under water; (fig.) To run with the hare and hunt with the hounds.

Faire eau (of boats) = To spring a leak.

Faire de l’eau (of boats) = To take in fresh water.

Laissez couler l’eau = Do not be anxious about what cannot be helped; Don’t cry over spilt milk.

Cela s’en est allé en eau de boudin = That collapsed utterly, came to nothing.

[The more correct form is s’en aller en aune de boudin, alluding to Perrault’s tale of Les Souhaits Ridicules.]

Ce mot m’est échappé = That word escaped me inadvertently (i.e., I did not mean to say it).

Ce mot m’a échappé = I have forgotten that word.

Le cas échéant = Should such a thing happen; If such should be the case.

Faire la courte échelle à quelqu’un = To allow some one to climb on one’s shoulders to scale a height; To give a lift to some one.

Après lui il faut tirer l’échelle = One cannot do better than he has (or, does); He beats the record, takes the cake.

Faire l’école buissonnière = To play truant.

Faire une école = To make a blunder.

Faire école = To found (or, to be a leader of) a school of art, literature, music, &c.

Faire un tour d’écolier = To play a schoolboy trick.

Faire une faute d’écolier = To make a foolish mistake.

*Il n’y a pas de petites économies = A penny saved is a penny earned; Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.

[Also: Les petites économies font les bonnes maisons.]

*Jamais beau parler n’écorcha la langue = Fair words never did harm; Civility costs nothing.

Il écorche le français = He murders French.

Il écorche l’anguille par la queue = He sets (goes) the wrong way to work.

Il fait un vent à écorner (or, décorner) un bœuf = The wind is enough to blow one’s head off.

Chacun a payé son écot = Each paid for himself.

Comme cet homme s’écoute! = What care that man takes of himself!

C’est un écoute s’il pleut = He is a man who cannot be relied upon.

[Mills were so called which depended for their motive-power on rain-water and consequently were continually stopping.]

Il n’écoute que d’une oreille = He pays very little attention.

Écrire de bonne encre à quelqu’un = To write to some one in strong terms.

Être propre comme une écuelle de chat = To be very dirty.

*Fermer l’écurie quand les chevaux sont dehors = To lock the stable door when the steed is stolen.

C’est un cheval à l’écurie = It is a white elephant.

Cela fait de l’effet = That looks well; That is showy; That makes a fine display.

Cela me fait cet effet = That seems so to me.

Cela m’est égal = It is all the same to me; I don’t care.

Tout lui est égal = Everything is the same to him.

D’égal à égal = 1. Between equals. 2. On equal terms.

C’est égal, je me suis joliment amusé = Anyhow (All the same), I enjoyed myself very much.

*Près de l’église, loin de Dieu = The nearer the church, the farther from God.

Gueux comme un rat d’église = As poor as a church mouse.

Prendre son élan = To take one’s spring (before a jump).

Ne faites donc pas tant d’embarras = Do not make such a fuss.

Ce n’est pas l’embarras = There is no great difficulty in it; After all; For the matter of that.

Elle n’a que l’embarras du choix = She has only too much to choose from.

La loi passa d’emblée = The law passed straight off, by acclamation.

Il a été reçu d’emblée = He passed his examination the first time he went up, without any difficulty.

*Qui trop embrasse mal étreint = Grasp all, lose all.

[“Qui totum vult totum perdit.”—Publius Syrus.

Qui tout convoite tout perd.
L’avarice rompt le sac.
Too much is stark naught.
“Oh, the little more, and how much it is!
And the little less, and what worlds away!”
Browning, Dramatic Lyrics,‘By the Fireside,’ 39.]

Il a employé le vert et le sec pour y parvenir = He left no stone unturned to secure success.

S’emporter comme une soupe au lait = To be very hasty-tempered.

Ne faites pas attention à ses menaces, autant en emporte le vent = Pay no attention to his threats, they are as light as air.

Emporter ses cliques et ses claques = To clear off, bag and baggage.

C’est une réponse à l’emporte-pièce = It is a very cutting answer, and to the point.

[À l’emporte-pièce = Cut out by a machine-punch.]

Cela m’emporte la bouche = It burns my mouth (i.e. it is too highly spiced).

Il fait l’empressé auprès de sa vieille tante = He pays marked attention to his old aunt.

Elle a un air emprunté = She looks awkward, embarrassed, affected.

Ne choisit pas qui emprunte = Beggars cannot be choosers.

[“Qui empruncte ne choisist mie.”
Maistre Pierre Pathelin, 79.]

Casser le nez à quelqu’un à coups d’encensoir = To flatter some one fulsomely to his face. (See Casser.)

Payer la folle enchère = To pay for one’s rashness, for one’s folly.

[When a man bids at an auction and does not pay for what he has bought, the lot is put up again and he has to pay the difference (if any) between the price it is then sold at and the price he bid for it.]

Enchère au rabais = A Dutch auction.

Je suis entre l’enclume et le marteau = I am in a dilemma; I am between the devil and the deep sea.

*Il frappe toujours sur la même enclume = He is always harping on the same string.

*A dure enclume marteau de plume = The strokes of adversity find the wise man unmoved.

[“Impavidum ferient ruinae.”
Horace, Odes, iii. 3.]

Frapper au bon endroit = To touch the right spring; To hit the right nail on the head; To hit the mark; To touch the spot.

Des gens endimanchés = Folk rigged out in their Sunday best.

Des enfants perdus (military) = A forlorn hope.

Un enfant terrible = A child who tells awkward truths.

[Gavarni, the caricaturist, published a series of sketches in 1865 under the title of “Les Enfants Terribles.”]

Elle a deux enfants du premier lit = She has two children by her first husband.

C’est un enfant de la balle = He is his father’s son; He follows the profession of his father. (See Balle.)

C’est bien l’enfant de sa mère = He is the very image of his mother.

Faire l’enfant = To behave childishly (on purpose).

Je ne suis pas ici pour enfiler des perles = I am not here to waste my time.

Cela ne s’enfile pas comme des perles = That is by no means an easy matter.

C’est un enfonceur de portes ouvertes = 1. He is a braggart. 2. He takes a deal of trouble to solve a difficulty which does not exist.

Être pris dans l’engrenage = To be caught in the toils.

On enleva les journaux comme du pain = The papers sold like hot rolls, like wild-fire.

Il n’y a pas de petit ennemi = Every enemy is to be feared.

[“Croire qu’un faible ennemi ne peut pas nuire, c’est croire qu’une étincelle ne peut pas causer un incendie.” Sa’adi.]

Nous sommes logés à la même enseigne = We are both in the same predicament, in the same boat.

[“ἐν γὰρ τῷ αὐτῷ ἐσμεν σκάμματι.” St. Clement’s Epistle to the Church of Corinth.]

À telles enseignes = In proof whereof; So much so that.

Je ne le croirai qu’à bonnes enseignes = I shall only believe it upon good authority.

Il entend à demi mot = He can take a hint.

*À bon entendeur, salut = A word to the wise is enough; Verbum sap.

[“A bon entendeur ne fault qu’une parole.”—Rabelais, Pantagruel, v. 7.]

Il n’entend pas de cette oreille = (fig.) He will listen to nothing on that subject.

Vous ne vous y entendez pas = You do not know how to set about it, how to manage it.

Il n’entend pas raillerie là-dessus = 1. You must not speak lightly of that before him. 2. He will not be trifled with on that point.

Entendre la raillerie = To know how to be witty; To be a good hand at chaff.

Entendre raillerie = Not to be offended at a joke; To stand chaff well.

Il n’y entend pas malice = 1. He does not mean any harm; He means no more than he says. 2. He takes it innocently.

Faire l’entendu = To put on a knowing look.

*Il n’est pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre = None so deaf as those who will not hear.

Un mot à double entente = A word (or, remark) with two meanings.

*Mieux vaut goujat debout qu’empereur enterré = A living dog is better than a dead lion.

J’ai bien envie d’aller à Paris avec vous = I have a good mind to go to Paris with you.

Il ne porte envie à personne = He envies no one.

Il ne fait envie à personne = No one envies him.

Si l’envie m’en prend = If I feel inclined to do it.

Je l’ai envoyé promener (or, fam., paître) = I sent him about his business.

C’est son épée de chevet = 1. That is his trusty counsellor. 2. That is what he is always talking about.

[Literally, a sword that hung at the head of a bed to guard one from nocturnal attacks.

“Voilà leur épée de chevet, de l’argent.”—Molière, L’Avare, iii. 5.]

Passer au fil de l’épée = To put to the sword.

Qui porte épée porte paix = One sword keeps another in its scabbard; Si vis pacem, para bellum.

*Mariage d’épervier, la femelle vaut mieux que le mâle = The grey mare is the better horse.

Tirer une épine du pied à quelqu’un = To take a thorn out of some one’s side; To get some one over a difficulty.

Il est toujours tiré à quatre épingles = He always looks as if he came out of a band-box.

J’ai tiré mon épingle du jeu = I have saved my stake; I got well out of a bad job.

[Une locution qui vient d’un jeu de petites filles: elles mettent des épingles dans un rond, et, avec une balle qui, lancée contre le mur, revient vers le rond, elles essayent d’en faire sortir les épingles: quand on fait sortir sa mise, on dit qu’on retire son épingle du jeu.]

Une épingle par jour fait huit sous par an = A pin a day is a groat a year.

Passons l’éponge là-dessus = Let us say no more about it; Let us forget all about it; Let bygones be bygones.

C’est un ami à toute épreuve = He is a well-tried, faithful, trusty friend.

L’édition est épuisée = The book is out of print.

Oh! la belle équipée! = Here’s a pretty kettle of fish!

Se dresser sur ses ergots = To stand on one’s dignity.

Je suis bien dans son esprit = He has a good opinion of me.

Où avez-vous donc l’esprit? = What are you thinking of?

Il a l’esprit aux talons = He shines at the wrong end; He is not witty.

Il a l’esprit de l’escalier = He never thinks of the right answer at the proper moment.

[i.e. He thinks of the right answer going down the staircase, after leaving the room.]

Faire de l’esprit = To try and be witty.

Il a de l’esprit comme quatre = He is very witty.

L’esprit court les rues = Wit is a drug in the market.

Avoir l’esprit bien fait = To be good-tempered.

Les grands esprits se rencontrent = Great wits always jump together; We both said the same thing at the same moment.

Essuyer les plâtres = To move into a newly-built house before the walls are dry; (fig.) To experience the disadvantages of a beginning.

Avoir l’estomac dans les talons = To be as hungry as a hunter.

Nous faisons peu d’état de cet homme = We consider that man very little; We take little account of that man.

De son état = By profession, by trade.

Je l’ai mis hors d’état de vous nuire = I have put it out of his power to harm you.

Pour un rien il se met dans tous ses états (fam.) = He gets very excited over a mere trifle.

L’État, c’est moi! = The State! I am the State.

[Chéruel, Histoire de l’Administration monarchique en France, Livre II. p. 32.]

Il y a de l’étoffe dans cet enfant = There is grit in that boy.

Voir des étoiles (la lune) en plein midi = To receive a violent blow in the eye, so as to “see stars.”

Étourdir la grosse faim = To take the edge off one’s appetite.

Je n’y suis pour personne = I am not at home to anybody.

Je n’y suis pour rien = I have nothing to do with it; I have no hand in it.

Vous n’y êtes pas = You do not understand it; “You are out of it.”

J’y suis, j’y reste = Here I am, here I stop.

[Marshal MacMahon in the trenches before the Malakoff, Sept. 9, 1855.]

Cette fois, ça y est = Now it is done, and no mistake.

Je n’en suis plus = I am no longer one of the party; I no longer belong to it.

Il n’en a rien été = Nothing came of it.

Il en a été pour sa peine = He had his trouble for nothing.

Il en sera ce qu’il vous plaira = It shall be just as you please.

Je ne sais plus où j’en suis = 1. I have lost the place where I left off (in reading, etc.). 2. I do not know what I am about.

Je suis très bien avec lui = I am on very good terms with him.

Êtes-vous de la noce? = Are you one of the wedding party?

Êtes-vous des nôtres = Are you one of our party? Are you one of us? Do you think as we do?

Voilà ce que c’est que de se mettre en colère = That is the consequence of losing one’s temper.

Je suis à l’étroit = I am cramped for room.

*On ne peut pas être et avoir été = One cannot have one’s cake and eat it. (See Drap.)

Tu n’en auras pas l’étrenne = You will not be the first to use it.

Il a le pied à l’étrier = He is ready to start.

Buvez le coup de l’étrier = Drink the stirrup-cup.

A franc étrier = At full speed. (See Bride and Train.)

C’est l’Évangile (or, c’est parole d’Évangile) = It is gospel truth.

*Qui s’excuse, s’accuse = If you try to excuse yourself you practically acknowledge that you have done wrong; A guilty conscience needs no accuser.

Excusez du peu (ironic.) = Only that? How modest!

Il prêcha d’exemple = He practised what he preached; He set the example.

*Peu de leçons, beaucoup d’exemples = Precepts lead, examples draw; It is easiest learning at another’s cost.

*Expérience passe science = Experience is the best master; Experientia docet.

[“Experience is the best of schoolmasters, only the school fees are heavy.” Carlyle, Misc. Essays, i. 137.]

Les extrêmes se touchent = Extremes meet; Too far east is west; Too much care may be as bad as downright negligence.

C’est de sa fabrique = That is of his invention.

Marque de fabrique = Trade-mark.

Il fera face à tout = He will meet every demand.

Ce portrait est pris de face = That portrait is taken full face.

Jouer à pile ou face = To play at heads or tails, pitch and toss.

Il le regarda bien en face = He looked him straight in the face.

Donner un ouvrage à façon = To put out a job to be done.

On travaille à façon (of small tailors, etc.) = People’s own materials made up.

C’est un conte de sa façon = It is a story of his own invention.

Maintenant qu’il est riche, il s’en donne de la bonne façon = Now he is rich, he refuses himself nothing.

Je lui dirai ma façon de penser = I’ll give him a piece of my mind.

Une façon de parler = A form of speech; A way of speaking (not to be taken literally).

[e.g. “Quand je dis qu’il n’est jamais venu en Angleterre c’est une façon de parler, car il a passé huit jours à Douvres il y a dix ans.”]

Cet homme n’a ni mine ni façon = That man has neither grace nor good looks; That man is as awkward as he is ugly.

C’est lui qui fait les sottises et c’est moi qui en paye la façon = He commits the mistakes and I have to pay for them.

Il a bonne façon = He has good style; He is well got up.

De toute façon il a tort = At any rate he is wrong; Whichever way you look at it, he is wrong.

Sans façon = Without ceremony, without fuss.

De façon ou d’autre = Somehow or other.

C’est un vrai fagot d’épines = He is a regular bear.

*Il y a fagots et fagots = There are men and men; All men are not alike.

[Molière, Le Médecin malgré lui, i. 6.]

Sentir le fagot = 1. To be tainted with heresy (obsolete). 2. Not to be quite honest.

Comme vous voilà fagotée! = How awkwardly you are dressed! What a fright (or, dowdy) you look!

[“Pour moi, quand une femme a le don de se taire,
Eût-elle en vrai magot tout le corps fagoté,
Je lui voudrais donner le prix de la beauté.”
Corneille, Le Menteur.]

J’ai failli tomber = I very nearly fell.

C’est la faim qui épouse la soif = They are both very poor; It is one beggar marrying another.

*La faim chasse le loup hors du bois = Hunger tames the lion; Hunger will break through stone walls.

Rien n’y fait = Nothing has any effect upon him (or, on it); It is all of no use.

Comment est-il fait? = What sort of a man is he?

*Ce qui est fait est fait = It is no good crying over spilt milk.

*On ne peut faire qu’en faisant = Practice makes perfect.

Faire la Saint-Lundi = To do no work on Monday. (See Lundi.)

[Colloquially: Faire le Lundi.]

Tâchez de faire quelques provisions = Try and collect some provisions.

Faire dix ans de travaux forcés = To undergo ten years’ penal servitude.

Il est bon de se faire à la fatigue = It is good to accustom oneself to fatigue.

Coquelin fait le rôle principal = Coquelin is taking the principal part.

On le fait riche = He is said to be rich.

Cela ne me fait ni chaud ni froid = It is all the same to me.

Je n’ai que faire de vos conseils = I do not care a jot for your advice; I do not want your advice.

*Qui bien fera, bien (se) trouvera = Who works well will have a good reward.

Il ne faut pas me la faire (pop.) = You must not try that on with me.

Combien faites-vous cette étoffe? = How much are you asking for this stuff?

Il aime à ce qu’on fasse cas de lui = He likes to be made a fuss of.

Il fait bien son chemin = He is getting on in the world.

Ils ne font qu’un = They are hand and glove together.

Cela fait beaucoup = That makes a great difference.

Cela me fait sortir des gonds = That exasperates me.

Il faut faire mousser sa marchandise = One must puff one’s goods.

Qu’est-ce que cela me fait? = What is that to me?

Faire huit kilomètres à pied, à cheval, en voiture = To walk, ride, drive, five miles.

Le vert fait bien avec le rose = Green goes well with pink; Pink and green are fit for a queen.

Faire des siennes = To be at one’s old tricks.

Il n’en fait qu’à sa volonté = He is self-willed.

C’est à faire à vous de réussir = You are the man to succeed.

C’en est fait de lui = He is done for; It is all up with him.

Ce qui est fait n’est pas à faire = Better to finish it now than to leave it.

Ce n’est ni fait ni à faire = It is done, but badly, (in a slovenly fashion).

Il fait cher vivre à Londres = Living in London is dear.

Que faire? = What am I (or, are we) to do? What is to be done?

Pourquoi faire? = What for?

Comment faire? = What is to be done?

Que voulez-vous que j’y fasse? = How can I help it? What would you have me do? It is no business of mine.

Je ne saurais qu’y faire = I cannot help it.

A chose faite point de remède = What is done cannot be undone.

Laissez-le faire = Do not interfere with him.

Si faire se peut = If possible.

Cela ne fait rien = That does not matter.

Il n’en fera rien = He will do nothing of the sort.

Je m’y fais = I am getting used to it.

C’est bien fait = It serves him (or, her, you) right.

Quel temps fait-il? = What is the weather like?

Quel temps il fait! = What weather this is!

Paris ne s’est pas fait en un jour = Rome was not built in a day.

Il s’est fait jardinier = He became a gardener.

Elle se fait vieille = She is getting old.

Pour se faire la main = To get one’s hand in (i.e. to get accustomed to the work).

Se faire jour à travers la foule = To force one’s way through the crowd.

Je me fais fort de le faire = I feel quite confident of doing it.

Coquelin sait le mieux se faire une tête = Coquelin is the cleverest at altering his features, at making up.

Cela se fait maintenant = That is the fashion now.

Cela ne se fait pas = That is not proper; That is not the correct thing.

C’est un faiseur d’embarras = He is a fussy personage.

Cela est de mon fait = That is my doing.

Venons au fait = Let us come to the point.

Mettez-moi au fait de ce qui s’est passé = Tell me what happened.

Il lui a dit son fait = He told him what he thought of him (not complimentary); He gave him a bit of his mind.

Si fait! = Yes, indeed! On the contrary!

Cette place est votre fait = That situation is just the thing for you.

Je suis sûr de mon fait = I am sure of what I am saying; I know what I am about.

C’est un fait accompli = It is done and cannot be undone.

Travailler à prix fait (or, à forfait) = To work at an agreed price; To work by the piece.

Prendre quelqu’un sur le fait = To take any one in the act.

Il a pris fait et cause pour moi = He stood up for me; He took my part.

L’homme qu’il faut = The very man (for a post).

Il le faut = It must be so.

Il fallait voir comme il était content = You should have seen how happy he was.

Peu s’en fallut qu’il ne fût reçu = He was all but received; He failed for a few marks.

[Latin: Haud multum abfuit quin....]

C’est un homme comme il faut = He is a perfect gentleman.

C’est un homme comme il en faut = He is one of the right sort.

[Sometimes in bad sense: He is the sort of man we want to do that dirty work.]

C’est un homme comme il en faudrait beaucoup = I wish more men were like him (because of his straightforward or courageous nature).

S’il n’est pas un fripon, il ne s’en faut guère = If he is not a rascal, he is precious near it.

Il s’en faut beaucoup que l’un ait autant de mérite que l’autre = There is a great difference in merit between the two.

Il s’en faut de beaucoup que leur nombre soit complet = Their number is far from being complete.

[The former of these two idioms should refer to quality, the latter to quantity.]

Des gens de même farine = Persons of the same kidney (generally in a bad sense); People tarred with the same brush.

“Le bruit est pour le fat, la plainte pour le sot,
L’honnête homme trompé s’éloigne et ne dit mot,”
= Rows are for muffs, ’tis only fools complain.
The gentleman deceived will grin and bear the pain.

[La Noue, La Coquette corrigée, i. 3 (1756).]

Rien ne vous fera faute = You will want for nothing.

Il ne se fait faute de rien = He denies himself nothing.

C’est une faute d’inattention = It is a slip.

C’est une faute d’impression = It is a misprint.

Il ne se fait pas faute de se plaindre = He complains freely.

Faute de mieux = For want of something better.

Chanter faux = To sing out of tune.

Faire un faux pas = (lit.) To stumble; (fig.) To make a slip; To commit a mistake.

Vous faites fausse route = You are taking the wrong road; You are on the wrong track.

Cette poutre porte à faux = That beam does not rest properly on its support.

Cette remarque a porté à faux = That remark was not to the point, was not conclusive.

Faux comme un jeton = As false as Judas; As false as a die.

Je m’inscris en faux contre cette assertion = I emphatically deny the truth of that assertion.

C’est la fée Carabosse = She is an old hag.

*Les pots fêlés sont ceux qui durent le plus = The door with the creaking hinge hangs longest; The cracked pitcher goes oftenest to the well.

*Femme qui parle comme homme et geline qui chante comme coq ne sont bonnes à tenir =
A whistling woman and a crowing hen
Are good for neither cocks nor men.

[“C’est chose qui moult me deplaist,
Quand poule parle et coq se taist.”
Roman de la Rose.

“La poule ne doit pas chanter devant le coq.”
Molière, Les Femmes Savantes, v. 3.]

*Prends le premier conseil d’une femme et non le second = A woman’s instinct is better than her reason.

[Montaigne coined the phrase l’esprit primesautier to describe this feminine peculiarity of either seeing a thing at once or not at all.]

Femme sotte se connaît à la cotte = A foolish woman is known by her finery.

Ce que femme veut Dieu le veut = Woman must have her way.

*Souvent femme varie,
Bien fol est qui s’y fie =
Between a woman’s yes and no,
There’s no room for a pin to go.
A woman’s mind
And winter wind
Change oft.

[These words are said to have been written by François I. on two little leaded panes in his room at the castle of Chambord, about ten miles from Blois. Brantôme says that while talking with his sister, Marguerite d’Angoulême, he engraved the saying with a diamond ring. Report has it that Louis XIV. broke the glass with his stick at the request of Mademoiselle de la Vallière. However that may be, the visitor to Chambord will see that the words have been rewritten on the window.]

Ciel pommelé et femme fardée ne sont pas de longue durée = A mackerel sky, not long wet and not long dry.

Il faut passer par là ou par la fenêtre = It is absolutely inevitable.

*Il faut battre le fer pendant qu’il est chaud = You must strike while the iron is hot.

[“Ce pendant que le fer est chault il le fault battre.”—Rabelais, Pantagruel, ii. 31.]

Cela ne vaut pas les quatre fers d’un chien = That is not worth a rap, a fig (i.e., nothing, for a dog is not shod).

Il tomba les quatre fers en l’air = (lit.) He fell on his back; (fig.) He was struck all of a heap.

Il y a quelque fer qui cloche = There is a hitch somewhere. (See Clocher.)

Sans coup férir = Without striking a blow.

Il est ferré sur la géographie = He is well up in geography.

*Ce n’est pas tous les jours fête = Christmas comes but once a year.

Faire fête à quelqu’un = To welcome some one heartily.

Je me fais une fête de passer huit jours à la campagne = I look forward with pleasure to the idea of spending a week in the country.

Il n’a ni feu ni lieu = He has neither house nor home.

L’ennemi mit le pays à feu et à sang = The enemy put the country to fire and sword.

Je n’y ai vu que du feu = It was impossible for me to find out how the thing was done (as it was done so quickly); It was done so quickly (or, cleverly) that I could not make head or tail of it.

Vous me faites mourir à petit feu = You are killing me by inches; You are torturing me to death.

Il ne faut pas jouer avec le feu = One should not play with edged tools.

Il n’est feu que de bois vert = None are so active as the young.

Il jette feu et flamme = He frets and fumes; He is in a great rage.

Faire feu des quatre pieds = To strain every nerve.

Ce n’est qu’un feu de paille = It is only a flash in the pan; It will not last.

Il a jeté tout son feu = 1. His anger is over now. 2. He has used up all his ideas.

C’est le feu et l’eau = They are as opposite as fire and water.

Faire feu = To fire (rifles, guns).

Faire du feu = To light a fire.

*Il a trouvé la fève au gâteau = He has hit the mark; He has made a lucky discovery.

[It was (and is still in many places) the custom to hide a bean in the cake on Twelfth Night, and the person who found it was the king of the revels.

“Pensent avoir trouvé la fève du gasteau.”
Régnier, Satires, vii.]

*Donner un pois pour avoir une fève = To give a sprat to catch a herring. (See Œuf.)

Fier comme Artaban (or, comme un Écossais) = As proud as a peacock.

[Artaban was the hero of Cléopâtre, a romance by La Calprenède, a Gascon. The phrase is also said to be derived from Artabanes, King of Parthia. “Plus fier que tous les Artabans.”—Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, i. 2.]

*Tomber de fièvre en chaud mal (or, de la poêle dans la braise, de Charybde en Scylla) = To fall out of the frying-pan into the fire.

[“Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charybdim.”—Compare Homer, Od. xii. 85.

“Thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into Charybdis, your mother.”—Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, iii. 5.]

*Moitié figue, moitié raisin = 1. Partly willingly, partly by force. 2. Half one thing and half another. 3. Half in jest, half in earnest.

[This expression is often used of a remark that may be complimentary or not.]

Je lui donnerai du fil à retordre = I will cut out his work for him; I will give him a deal of trouble.

Ce sont des finesses cousues de fil blanc = Those tricks are easily found out.

*A toile ourdie Dieu envoie le fil = God sends thread for a begun web.

Au fil de l’eau = With the stream.

Au fil de l’épée = To the edge of the sword.

Filer à l’anglaise = To leave without saying good-bye, without attracting attention; To take French leave.

*Du temps que Berthe filait = When Adam delved and Eve span; In the good old times.

[Berthe was the mother of Charlemagne. She was known as Berthe au grand pied from her club foot.]

Filer doux = To sing small.

Il faut filer (or, Filons!) (fam.) = We must be off, trot off.

La plus belle fille du monde ne peut donner que ce qu’elle a = No man can give more than he has; A man cannot give what he has not got.

*Quand on a des filles, on est toujours berger =
My son is my son till he gets him a wife,
My daughter’s my daughter all the days of her life.

*Fille oisive, à mal pensive = An idle brain is the devil’s workshop.

[“For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do.”
Isaac Watts, Divine Songs, xx.]

Il est bien le fils de son père = He is a chip of the old block.

Être le fils de ses œuvres = To be a self-made man.

Fin (subst.)

À la fin vous voilà! = Here you are at last!

À la fin des fins (or, en fin finale) vous nous direz quelque chose = At last you will tell us something.

À telle fin que de raison = At all events; At any rate.

*La fin couronne l’œuvre = The end crowns all; All’s well that ends well.

*Qui veut la fin veut les moyens = Where there is a will there is a way; If you want the end you must not stick at the means.

*La fin justifie les moyens = Success justifies the means by which it has been attained.

Il touche à sa fin = He is nearing his end; It is nearly over.

*En toutes choses il faut considérer la fin = We must always look to the end; Look before you leap.

[La Fontaine, Fables, iii. 5. The motto of the Kennedy family is “Look to the end,” or “Avise la fin.”]

C’est fin de siècle = That is smart, up to date.

[This expression came to the front in Paris about the time of the 1889 Exhibition. In 1890 appeared a play called “Paris fin de siècle,” by Blum and Toché, in which occur these words: “C’est un mot nouveau qui dit très bien ce qu’il veut dire. Le siècle n’a plus que dix ans à vivre et, vois-tu, il veut les passer gaiement.” The saying, however, has lost its sense, and is becoming obsolete now that a new century has begun.]

Il sait le fort et le fin de son art = He knows every trick of his trade.

Plus fin que lui n’est pas bête = He who can take him in is no fool.

J’arrive du fin fond de l’Afrique = I have come from the very depths of Africa.

C’est une fine mouche (or, lame) = He is a cunning fellow, a sly dog. (See Compère.)

C’est fin contre fin = It is diamond cut diamond.

[Also: Fin contre fin ne vaut rien pour doublure.]

Fin contre fin gare la bombe = “When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war.”

[Nathaniel Lee, Alexander the Great, iv. 2.]

Dites nous le fin mot = Tell us the secret.

Il a le nez fin = 1. He has a good nose. 2. He is far-sighted, sagacious.

Jouer au plus fin = To vie in cunning.

Ce sont des disputes à n’en plus finir = Those are endless quarrels.

C’est un homme flambé = He is a ruined man, a lost man.

Il s’est battu les flancs pour rien = He gave himself all that trouble for nothing.

Il est sur le flanc = He is laid up, on his back.

Prêter le flanc à des reproches = To lay oneself open to reproaches.

*De rose flétrie nul ne soucie = The fading rose has no suitor.

C’est la fine fleur de l’armée = It is the cream of the army.

L’affaire passa à fleur de corde = The matter only just succeeded.

Les yeux à fleur de tête = Goggle eyes (i.e. on a level with the cheek-bone and fore-head).

À fleur de terre = On a level (or, flush) with the ground.

À la fleur de l’âge = In the prime of life.

Il a les nerfs à fleur de peau = His nerves are always on the twitch; He is extremely sensitive.

Conter fleurettes = To say soft nothings.

*Ce qui vient de la flûte s’en va au tambour = Lightly come, lightly go; What is dishonestly acquired is easily dissipated.

C’est un homme sans foi ni loi = He is a man without honour or honesty.

Il est de peu de foi = He is not to be trusted.

Ses ouvrages en font foi = His works prove it.

*C’est avec la bonne foi qu’on va le plus loin = Honesty is the best policy.

La foi du charbonnier = Blind faith.

Je ne puis ajouter foi à ce qu’il dit = I cannot believe what he says.

Ma foi! = Upon my word!

Mettre du foin dans ses bottes = To feather one’s nest.

[Literally, to place hay in one’s wooden shoes to keep one’s feet warm. Another saying is Mettre du beurre dans ses épinards.]

Avoir du foin dans ses bottes = To be well off.

Quand il n’y a pas de foin au râtelier, les chevaux se battent = When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out at the window.

Ce qui me lie, c’est ma folie = Straw bands will tie a fool’s hands.

Je fais fond sur vous = I rely on you.

Il sait cette langue à fond = He knows that language thoroughly.

Il est ruiné de fond en comble = He is utterly ruined.

Au fond, il a tort = He is wrong in reality.

Courir à fond de train = To run at the top of one’s speed.

Article de fonds = Leading article (in a newspaper).

Il possède une fortune en bien-fonds = He has a fortune in landed property.

Il a placé son argent à fonds perdu = He sank his money in an annuity.

*“Travaillez, prenez de la peine;
C’est le fonds qui manque le moins” =
Work and take pains, that you can always do.
Hard work and pain
Are ne’er in vain.
[La Fontaine, Fables, v. 9.]

*Il ne faut pas dire, “Fontaine, je ne boirai pas de ton eau” = One must never be sure of not wanting some one (or, something).

[Compare the proverb that Alfred de Musset took for the title of one of his Proverbes: “Il ne faut jurer de rien.”]

Tu me payeras de gré ou de force = You shall pay me, whether you like it or not.

Hugo est un romantique dans toute la force du terme = Hugo is a romanticist in the full sense of the word.

Je suis à bout de force = I am exhausted, played out.

Je ne suis pas de votre force = (lit.) I am not so strong as you are; (fig.) I am no match for you.

Force m’est de partir = I am compelled to go.

Il faut à toute force l’empêcher de sortir = You must prevent him going out by all the means in your power; We must do all we can to prevent him going out.

Il y avait force badauds = A quantity of loafers were there.

*La force prime le droit = Might is right. (See Fort.)

C’est un joueur de première force = He is a first-rate player.

Force est restée à la loi = The police proved the stronger; Order was restored.

C’est un cas de force majeure = It is a case of absolute necessity; It is an utter impossibility.

[e.g. “Le témoin n’a pu venir parce qu’il est dangereusement malade; son absence est due à un cas de force majeure.”]

Faire force de voiles = To crowd on all sail.

Faire force de rames = To row with all one’s might.

*Tout par amour, rien par force = Sweet words will succeed where mere strength will fail; You may row your heart out if wind and tide are against you.

À force de travailler = By dint of working.

À force de bras = By strength of arm.

De vive force = By main force.

Un tour de force = A feat (of strength or skill).

*À force de forger on devient forgeron = Practice makes perfect; Drawn wells are seldom dry.

[Lat. Fit fabricando faber.]

Cela est trop fort (or, raide) = That is too bad; That is beyond a joke.

Cela est par trop fort = That is really too bad.

[This par is derived from the Latin intensive particle per, as in perhorridus. In French one finds such words as parfaire, parachever, and in old French this prefix was separable. Thus, tant il est parsage might be written tant il par est sage. So, Cela est par trop fort = Cela est trop parfort.]

C’est un esprit fort = He is a freethinker.

Voilà qui est fort = That is rather strong.

Ça, ce n’est pas fort = That is very tame; There is not much in that.

A plus forte raison = All the more reason; A fortiori.

Il faut que je parle, c’est plus fort que moi = I must speak, I cannot help it.

Le plus fort est fait = The worst is over; The most difficult part is done.

Savoir le fort et le faible de l’affaire = To know the ins and outs of the matter.

Le fort portant le faible = One thing with another; On an average.

*“La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure” = Might is right; There is no arguing with a large fist.

[La Fontaine, Fables, i. 10, Le loup et l’agneau.]

Fort comme un Turc = As strong as a horse.

“Ou tôt ou tard, ou près ou loin,
Le fort du faible a besoin” =
The lion had need of the mouse.

[Génin, Récréations, ii. 250.]

Chacun a dans sa vie un souris de la fortune = Fortune knocks once at every man’s door.

La fortune rit aux sots = Fools have the best luck.

[“Fortuna fortes adjuvat.”—Livy, xxxiv. 37.]

Voulez-vous accepter la fortune du pot? = Will you take pot-luck with us?

Faire contre fortune bon cœur = To bear up against misfortune; To make the best of a bad job.