Avoir les yeux de Chimène pour quelqu'un
Meaning: To be visibly smitten with someone or something.
Language: French
Literally: To have Chimène's eyes for someone
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: From Corneille's Le Cid, in which Chimène loves Rodrigue even after he kills her father — a devotion that survives every reason not to feel it. The phrase invokes the helplessness of the attraction rather than its object.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Se faire des cheveux blancs — To worry oneself sick.
- Haut les cœurs ! — Take courage; lift your spirits.
- Avoir les coudées franches — To have complete freedom of action.
- Battre sa coulpe — To publicly acknowledge one's own wrongdoing.
- Le petit doigt sur la couture du pantalon — Standing rigidly to attention; obeying without question.
- Ôter une épine du pied à quelqu'un — To relieve someone of a persistent difficulty.
More French idioms
- Aux calendes grecques — Never — used of something postponed indefinitely.
- Un cautère sur une jambe de bois — A remedy that is completely useless.
- Scier la branche sur laquelle on est assis — To destroy the thing your own position depends on.
- Tomber de Charybde en Scylla — To escape one danger only to meet a worse one.
- Proposer la botte à quelqu'un — To proposition someone sexually.
- Pousser le bouchon un peu loin — To go too far; to overstep.
From our proverbs
- There is no honor among thieves — Criminals cannot trust each other since shared criminal intent provides no moral foundati…
- There's a first time for everything — It is wise to try different sorts of things or experiences that one is unaccustomed to or…
- There's many a good tune played on an old fiddle — Worn-out tools and aging people retain their value and capability despite visible deterio…
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