Avoir les portugaises ensablées
Meaning: To be hard of hearing.
Language: French
Literally: To have one's Portuguese oysters silted up
Category: Animals
Origin: Portugaise is a variety of oyster, and its shape gave French a slang word for the ear. Silting is what happens to an oyster bed that stops being productive, which is the state being attributed to the ear.
More idioms — Animals
- Laid comme un pou — Extremely ugly.
- Le plancher des vaches — Dry land, as seen from the sea.
- Secouer comme un prunier — To shake someone violently.
- Le marchand de sable est passé — The children are getting sleepy.
- Prendre le taureau par les cornes — To tackle a difficulty head-on instead of avoiding it.
- Les vaches maigres — A period of hardship and scarcity — the opposite of les vaches grasses.
More French idioms
- Un pique-nique — A meal eaten outdoors to which everyone contributes.
- Cracher dans la soupe — To disparage the thing that sustains you.
- Trempé comme une soupe — Drenched to the skin.
- Payer rubis sur l'ongle — To pay in full, immediately and to the last penny.
- Faire avancer le schmilblick — To make actual progress on something.
- Avaler des poires d'angoisse — To endure something bitterly painful.
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- Phrase — Actually means 'sentence'. For a short phrase or expression, say une expression.
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