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Avoir la cote

Meaning: To be well regarded; to be popular.

Language: French

Literally: To have the quotation

Category: Daily Life

Origin: The cote is the quoted price or the odds posted on a horse, so having one is being valued at a figure the market recognizes. It measures standing in others' eyes rather than merit.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • Sans coup férir — Without any resistance at all; effortlessly.
  • Un coup de fil — A telephone call.
  • Tomber comme un couperet — To land suddenly and irrevocably, as of bad news.
  • Faire la cour à quelqu'un — To court someone romantically.
  • La cour des grands — The top tier, where the serious players are.
  • Une fois n'est pas coutume — One exception does not establish a habit.

More French idioms

  • Pendre la crémaillère — To hold a housewarming.
  • Riche comme Crésus — Enormously wealthy.
  • La critique est aisée, mais l'art est difficile — Faulting a work costs nothing compared with making one.
  • Tant va la cruche à l'eau qu'à la fin elle se casse — Repeated risk-taking eventually catches up with you.
  • Porter la culotte — To be the one who makes the decisions in a household.
  • N'en avoir cure — To be entirely indifferent to something.

From our untranslatable words

  • L'esprit de l'escalier — Thinking of the perfect comeback only after the moment has passed — on your way down the…
  • Terroir — The unique character that a place — its soil, climate and tradition — gives to a wine or…
  • Râler — To complain and grumble with a certain national flair — a beloved French pastime.

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