À l'eau de rose
Meaning: Insipidly sentimental, especially of fiction.
Language: French
Literally: Rosewater
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Rosewater is a mild, sweet, medically useless preparation, and the phrase treats a novel the same way. It is applied to romance almost exclusively.
More idioms — Daily Life
- L'échapper belle — To have a narrow escape.
- Faire l'école buissonnière — To play truant.
- Ne pas tarir d'éloges — To praise someone endlessly.
- Qui trop embrasse mal étreint — Attempting too many things at once means doing none of them properly.
- Une éminence grise — The unofficial power behind a public figure.
- À l'emporte-pièce — Trenchant and uncompromising, of a remark or judgment.
More French idioms
- Un enfant de la balle — Someone raised in the trade they now practice.
- L'enfer est pavé de bonnes intentions — Meaning well counts for nothing without acting well.
- Envers et contre tous — In defiance of universal opposition.
- À l'envi — Vying with one another; each trying to outdo the rest.
- Jeter l'éponge — To give up and concede.
- Passer l'éponge — To forgive and say no more about it.
From our proverbs
- There is no deceit in a brimmer. — A full cup offered openly invites honest scrutiny and leaves no room for hidden dealings…
- A broken leg is not healed by a silk stocking. — Expensive remedies cannot substitute for proper treatment of fundamental problems.
- A burden which one chooses is not felt. — Willingly undertaken hardships feel lighter than those imposed against your will.
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