Avoir le bras long
Meaning: To have influence and useful connections.
Language: French
Literally: To have a long arm
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: A long reach extends one's grasp into useful places; used figuratively in French since at least the 17th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- Korean: 발이 넓다 (bari neopda) — literally: To have wide feet
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Avoir le cœur sur la main — To be very generous and giving.
- To cost an arm and a leg — To be extremely expensive.
- Tener más cara que espalda — To be utterly shameless and brazen.
- Non avere peli sulla lingua — To speak bluntly and hold nothing back.
- Avere le mani bucate — To be a spendthrift.
- Остаться с носом (Ostat'sya s nosom) — To be left empty-handed or outwitted.
More French idioms
- Découvrir le pot aux roses — To uncover a hidden secret.
- Être dans de beaux draps — To be in a real mess.
- Se faire rouler dans la farine — To be conned or deceived.
- Tirer le diable par la queue — To struggle to make ends meet.
- Passer du coq à l'âne — To switch topics abruptly and illogically.
- Avoir le melon — To be bigheaded and conceited.
From our tongue twisters
- 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.