avoir des étoiles dans les yeux
Meaning: Being dreamy, hopeful, or enchanted by romantic ideals.
Language: French
Literally: to have stars in the eyes
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The comparison needs no explaining and no source manages to date it precisely: eyes lit up with joy or wonder are being likened to stars against a dark sky, a bright point standing out against the ordinary. Related expressions built the same way are much older — compter les étoiles, to count the stars, meaning to chase something unreachable, is on record from 1531 — but this particular phrasing, describing what happiness or infatuation does to someone's expression, does not appear to have a documented first use of its own.
More idioms — Body & Senses
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- give someone the cold shoulder — to deliberately treat someone with indifference or ignore them.
- wear your heart on your sleeve — to display emotions openly; to be transparent about feelings.
More French idioms
- faire un couac — Making an embarrassing mistake or producing a discordant sound.
- Quand les poules auront des dents — Never — it describes something that will simply never happen.
- Il y a anguille sous roche — Something suspicious is quietly going on beneath the surface.
- Ménager la chèvre et le chou — To try to please both sides of a conflict without committing to either.
- Avoir la gueule de bois — To be hungover.
- Filer à l'anglaise — To leave discreetly without saying goodbye.
From our untranslatable words
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