Au petit bonheur la chance
Meaning: Haphazardly, leaving the outcome entirely to chance.
Language: French
Literally: At little happiness, luck
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Bonheur here is its literal parts, bon and heur — good fortune, heur coming from Latin augurium, the same root as augure. The phrase resigns the result to whatever small luck happens to fall.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Avoir la bosse de — To have a natural gift for something, as in avoir la bosse des maths.
- Aller à Canossa — To humble oneself completely before someone; to submit and beg forgiveness.
- Parler à la cantonade — To speak to a group at large without addressing anyone in particular.
- Un capitaine d'industrie — The head of a large company.
- Il n'y a pas loin du Capitole à la roche Tarpéienne — Glory and disgrace are close neighbors — the fall can follow the honors very quickly.
- Arriver comme les carabiniers — To turn up far too late, when everything is already over.
More French idioms
- Rabattre le caquet à quelqu'un — To shut someone up; to take an insolent person down a peg.
- Caracoler en tête — To lead by a wide margin, especially in a race or in polls.
- Muet comme une carpe — Completely silent; saying absolutely nothing.
- La caque sent toujours le hareng — However far you rise, low origins always show through.
- Le dernier carat — The very last moment; the absolute limit.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
From our compliments & insults
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
- Courir sur le haricot — To get badly on someone's nerves.
- Tu as du chien — You have a certain irresistible magnetism — a je-ne-sais-quoi that draws people in.
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