IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchAppuyer sur le champignon
Meaning: To accelerate hard; to floor it.
Literally: To press on the mushroom
Example: “En voyant l'heure, il a appuyé sur le champignon pour ne pas rater l'avion.” — Seeing the time, he put his foot down so as not to miss the plane.
English equivalent: To put the pedal to the metal
Equivalents in other languages
English: put the pedal to the metal
Origin: The accelerator pedals of early motor cars were mounted as a rounded knob on a stalk, which looked unmistakably like a mushroom. The pedal changed shape long ago and the name stayed.
More French idioms
- Ne pas y aller par quatre chemins To come straight to the point.
- Un chevalier d'industrie A swindler who lives by his wits at others' expense.
- La cheville ouvrière The linchpin — the person or thing on which an entire operation turns.
- Une chiffe molle A spineless person with no will of their own.
- Être au septième ciel To be in a state of perfect happiness.
- Mettre la clé sous la porte To shut up shop; to go out of business.
Explore another collection: Tongue Twisters
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- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
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