Avoir le cafard
Meaning: To feel depressed or down.
Language: French
Literally: To have the cockroach
Category: Animals
Origin: Popularized by Charles Baudelaire in Les Fleurs du mal (1857).
More idioms — Animals
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Da steppt der Bär — It's going to be a great party.
- Ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift — I can't believe it! That's outrageous!
- Schwein haben — Getting unexpectedly lucky — rooted in medieval tournaments where the last-place finisher…
- Da liegt der Hund begraben — That's the crux of the matter.
More French idioms
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Raconter des salades — To tell lies or tall tales.
- En faire tout un fromage — To make a big deal out of nothing.
- Couper les cheveux en quatre — To over-analyze or split hairs.
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.