À fleur de peau
Meaning: Raw and easily provoked, of emotions; or just at the surface.
Language: French
Literally: At the flower of the skin
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: À fleur de means level with the surface, the same construction as à fleur d'eau. Nerves at the level of the skin have nothing covering them.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Avoir bon pied bon œil — To be in excellent shape, especially for one's age.
- Avoir le pied marin — To keep one's balance on a moving deck; to be unshaken by turbulence.
- Au pied levé — At a moment's notice, with no preparation.
- Se noyer dans un verre d'eau — To be defeated by the smallest difficulty.
- Jeter de la poudre aux yeux — To create a dazzling false impression.
- Tenir à quelque chose comme à la prunelle de ses yeux — To guard something as one's most precious possession.
More French idioms
- Merde ! — Good luck — said to a performer before going on stage.
- Voilà pourquoi votre fille est muette — Said of a grand explanation that explains nothing.
- Passez, muscade ! — Hey presto — said when something vanishes suspiciously conveniently.
- Se croire le premier moutardier du pape — To have a wildly inflated sense of one's own importance.
- Mystère et boule de gomme — Nobody has the faintest idea.
- Promettre monts et merveilles — To promise far more than could ever be delivered.
From our proverbs
- It is as good to be in the dark as without light. — Darkness without awareness of it equals blindness; ignorance becomes comfortable when une…
- A dark man's a jewel in a fair woman's eye. — Beauty standards flip based on contrast; what seems ordinary gains value through its rari…
- He that gropes in the dark finds that he would not. — Blind searching without guidance leads to unwanted discoveries rather than intended ones.
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