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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.

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