Enlever une épine du pied à quelqu'un

French idioms

A collection of idiomatic expressions in French with English equivalents and translations.
Idioms English versions
Faire la tête to sulk
("to do the head")
Garder la tête froide to keep one's cool
("to keep the head cool")
Se creuser la tête to think really hard / to remember something
("to dig into your head")
Se casser la tête to go to a lot of trouble
("to break your head")
Coûter les yeux de la tête to cost an arm and a leg
("to cost the eyes from the head")
Se mettre le doigt dans l'œil To put your foot in it - to make a mistake
("to put your finger in your eye")
Rester bouche bée to be speechless
("to be left open-mouthed")
Donner sa langue au chat to give up
("to give one's tongue to the cat")
Être au bout de la langue to have a word on the tip of your tongue
("to be on the tip of the tongue")
Avoir les dent longues to be ambitious
("to have long teeth")
Avoir un poil dans la main to be lazy; to avoid work
("to have a hair in the hand")
Manger sur le pouce to grab a bite to eat
("to eat on the thumb")
Ne rien faire de ses dix doigts to be lazy
("to do nothing with one's ten fingers")
Prendre ses jambes à son cou to take to one's heels
("to take one's legs to one's neck)
Casser les pieds à quelqu'un to get on someone's nerves; to bore someone
("to break someone's feet)
Enlever une épine du pied à quelqu'un to help / get someone out of a fix
("to remove a thorn from someone's feet)
Couper la poire en deux to meet someone halfway
("to cut the pear in two")
Pédaler dans la sémoule to become insane / senile
("to pedal in the semonlina")
Tomber dans les pommes to faint / pass out
("to fall in the apples")
Tondre des œufs to be cheap / a skinflint
("to mow/crop/shear the eggs")
Sucrer les fraises to be a bit doddery
("to sugar the strawberries")
C'est la goutte d'eau qui fait déborder le vase the straw that broke the camel's back
("it's the drop of water that made the vase overflow")
Caser du sucre sur son dos to gossip about someone behind their back
("to break some sugar on his/her back")
Appuyer sur le champignon to drive very fast / accelerate
("to press on the mushroom")
Étre dans le pétrin to be in a mess / a jam
("to be in the kneading-trough")
avoir la tête dans le guidon to be overwhelmed; to be striving; to be working hard
("to have one's head in the handlebars")
mettre son grain de sel to butt in; to put one's oar in; to make one's point
("to put one's grain of salt")
se regarder le nombril to egocentric; pretentious; selfish; to think the world/universe revolves around oneself
("to gaze at your navel")
être soupe au lait to be quick-tempered
("to be milky soup")
prendre la mouche to go off in a huff
("to take the fly")
faire mouche to score a bull's-eye
("to do a fly/button")
rouler à tombeau ouvert to go at breakneck speed
("to roll with the tomb open")
sentir le sapin to have one foot in the grave; have a graveyard cough; be not long for this world
("to smell of fir trees") - fir is used for coffins
les doigts dans le nez as easy as falling off a log
("[as easy as putting] one's fingers in one's nose")
tomber de sommeil to fall asleep; to be asleep on one's feet
manger sur le pouce to eat quickly; to grab a quick bite to eat
("to eat on the thumb")