Au grand dam de quelqu'un
Meaning: To someone's considerable detriment or annoyance.
Language: French
Literally: To someone's great harm
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Dam is Latin damnum, damage — an old French noun that survives only here, which is why it is so often mispronounced as though it were the English word. Nothing in the phrase relates to ladies or to dams.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Trouver son chemin de Damas — To undergo a sudden and total conversion.
- Une épée de Damoclès — A disaster hanging over someone, liable to fall at any moment.
- Entretenir une danseuse — To maintain a costly indulgence that serves no purpose.
- À l'usage du Dauphin — Expurgated; censored for delicate sensibilities.
- Les dés sont pipés — The outcome is rigged in advance.
- Au débotté — On the spot, with no time to prepare.
More French idioms
- Les délices de Capoue — Comfort that saps the will to keep fighting.
- Après moi le déluge — What happens once I am gone is not my problem.
- Le démon de midi — The midlife crisis, especially its romantic form.
- Mentir comme un arracheur de dents — To lie brazenly and habitually.
- Dur à la détente — Slow to understand — or, in the other sense, reluctant to part with money.
- Qui paye ses dettes s'enrichit — Settling what you owe leaves you better off than owing it.
From our false friends
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