50 idioms in French

To put down a rabbit → To leave someone waiting: to arrange to meet and never turn up, without a word.

In English: To stand someone up

To have other cats to whip → To have more important things to deal with. It serves to brush a subject aside without much ceremony.

In English: To have bigger fish to fry

There isn't a cat → The place is completely empty, there is nobody there. Used for streets, bars, beaches and parties that never got going.

In English: There isn't a soul

When hens have teeth → Never. It is the ironic answer to something a person promises but clearly will not do.

In English: When pigs fly

To give one's tongue to the cat → To give up guessing and ask for the answer. It is what you say in a riddle or a guessing game.

In English: I give up

To have a spider on the ceiling → To be not quite right in the head, to have strange ideas. It is usually said in jest about someone eccentric.

In English: To have bats in the belfry

To look for the little creature → To fuss over tiny details to find fault with something perfectly good. Nearly always said as a criticism of someone too fussy.

In English: To nitpick

To tell salads → To tell lies, to invent stories to string someone along. Used when a person's version convinces nobody.

In English: To spin a yarn

To fall into the apples → To faint, to black out. It is the ordinary, colloquial way of talking about fainting day to day.

In English: To pass out

It's the end of the beans → That's it, there is nothing left to be done. It is usually said with exaggeration and humour in the face of yet another problem.

In English: That's the last straw

To put butter in the spinach → To improve your finances a little, usually with some extra income. It is about side jobs, freelance work and overtime.

To make a whole cheese of it → To make an enormous drama out of nothing. Used to ask someone to calm down.

In English: To make a mountain out of a molehill

To have bread on the board → To have a lot of work ahead of you. It is the classic phrase of someone looking at the to-do list and sighing.

In English: To have one's work cut out

Look after your own onions → Mind your own affairs and stay out of mine. It is a curt reply to somebody being nosy.

In English: Mind your own business

To cost the eyes of the head → To be extremely expensive. It applies to rent, a trip, a repair, anything that hurts the wallet.

In English: To cost an arm and a leg

To have a long arm → To have influence and the contacts that get things done. Said of someone who can open doors because they know the right people.

In English: To have a lot of pull

To dig into one's own head → To think hard, to strain for a solution or an idea. Used for exams, work and everyday problems.

In English: To rack one's brains

To have a hair in one's hand → To be extremely lazy, to dodge any effort. It is a good-humoured jab at someone who never does anything.

In English: To be bone idle

To make the deaf ear → To pretend not to have heard so as to avoid answering or acting. Widely used for requests, reminders and complaints that go ignored.

In English: To turn a deaf ear

To break someone's feet → To wear someone's patience down, to pester them endlessly. Said of anyone who harps on a subject until everyone is tired of it.

In English: To get on someone's nerves

To put one's feet in the dish → To blunder into a delicate subject with no tact at all. It can be accidental or deliberate, to force the topic out.

In English: To put one's foot in it

To have one's head in the clouds → To be distracted, daydreaming, out of touch with reality. Used for inattentive pupils and for impractical people.

In English: To have one's head in the clouds

It's raining ropes → It is absolutely pouring, a thick and unbroken rain. It is the most common expression for heavy rain in France.

In English: It's raining cats and dogs

A duck cold → A biting, unbearable cold. It is the everyday way of complaining about winter.

In English: Bitterly cold

To make the rain and the fine weather → To run everything, to decide a place's direction single-handedly. Used for bosses, politicians and whoever actually holds the power.

In English: To call the shots

After the rain, the fine weather → After a bad spell comes a better one. It serves to console someone going through a hard time.

In English: Every cloud has a silver lining

To have the wind at the stern → To be on a winning streak, with everything going your way. Widely used in the press about companies, artists and teams.

In English: To have the wind in one's sails

To put the key under the door → To close down a business for lack of money. It is the usual term for a small shop going under.

In English: To shut up shop

To join the two ends → To make the money last until the end of the month. Used to talk about a tight budget.

In English: To make ends meet

To be mown like the wheat → To be completely out of money. It is the emphatic version of «fauché», French slang for broke.

In English: To be skint

To throw money out of the windows → To spend with no judgement at all, to squander. It is the classic reproach to someone who burns through what they earn.

In English: To throw money down the drain

To put one's hand in the dough → To join in the actual work rather than just directing or watching. Used to call on everyone to help.

In English: To pitch in

To have the cockroach → To feel melancholy, low, without energy. It is not clinical depression: it is that passing sadness that arrives for no clear reason.

In English: To have the blues

To have the strike of lightning → To fall in love instantly with someone. More rarely it is used for a sudden passion for a place or an object.

In English: Love at first sight

To take a rake in the face → To be turned down when making a move on someone. It is youthful, conversational language between friends.

In English: To get shot down

The mustard is rising to my nose → Anger is building and patience is running out. It works as a warning before the explosion.

In English: My blood is starting to boil

To be at the angels → To be glowing with happiness. Used for a joy that shows, almost childlike.

In English: To be over the moon

To have it up to the rim of the bowl → To be fed up, unable to stand a situation any longer. It is one of the most used complaints in spoken French.

In English: To have had it up to here

To blow the lead fuses → To lose control completely, to explode with rage or stress. It is thoroughly informal.

In English: To blow a fuse

To make the bridge → To take the working day that falls between a public holiday and the weekend so as to join up the time off. It is common practice and debated every year in France.

In English: To take a long weekend

Let us come back to our sheep → Let's return to the main subject. Used in meetings and conversations that have drifted off topic.

In English: Let's get back to the point

There's an eel under the rock → Something is being hidden, something is not being said. Used when someone's behaviour raises suspicion.

In English: I smell a rat

To be beside the plate → To be completely mistaken or talking about something else entirely. It also describes someone switched off who has not grasped the context.

In English: To be wide of the mark

Metro, work, sleep → The automatic routine of someone who only works, commutes and sleeps. Used to complain about a life with no let-up and no spark.

In English: The daily grind

To see life in pink → To see everything on the bright side, sometimes with exaggerated optimism. It can be a compliment or gentle irony, depending on tone.

In English: To see life through rose-tinted glasses

To grind black → To dwell on gloomy thoughts, to keep turning over the worst. Used for someone sunk inside their own head.

In English: To brood

To be in the red → To have an account in the negative or finances at the limit. It applies to people and to companies.

In English: To be in the red

To laugh yellow → To give a forced laugh with no amusement in it at all, to cover embarrassment or annoyance.

In English: To give a hollow laugh

To put oneself on one's thirty-one → To dress up with care, to put on your best clothes. Used for weddings, parties and special occasions.

In English: To be dressed to the nines

To look for noon at two in the afternoon → To complicate what is simple, to look for difficulty where there is none. It applies to anyone stuck on an easy decision.

In English: To make a meal of it