avoir un bleu
Meaning: Having a bruise on the skin from impact or injury.
Language: French
Literally: to have a blue
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: As plain as it looks: a bruise runs through a whole spectrum of colors as it heals — red, purple, yellow, green — but blue is reliably somewhere in that progression, and French settled on that stage of the healing to name the whole mark. There is no further story to tell; the phrase is simply the color, used as the noun.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- avoir une dent contre quelqu'un — Holding a grudge or resentment toward someone.
- avoir le trac — Feeling nervous or anxious before a performance or important event.
- avoir une grosse tête — Being arrogant, conceited, or thinking highly of oneself.
- avoir la chair de poule — Experiencing fear, cold, or emotional reaction causing skin reaction.
- mettre son doigt sur la plaie — Identifying the exact problem or sensitive issue in a situation.
- faire ses dents — A baby is teething and developing their first teeth.
More French idioms
- prendre ses rêves pour des réalités — Confusing fantasy with reality; living in delusion.
- faire la pluie et le beau temps — Having complete control over a situation or someone's fate.
- tirer les vers du nez — Getting someone to reveal information they want to keep secret.
- faire la morte — Pretending not to notice something or ignoring a situation.
- manger ses paroles — Having to take back or admit one was wrong about something said.
- mettre l'eau à la bouche — Making someone crave or desire something through temptation.
From our untranslatable words
- Épanouissement — The full flourishing of a person — blooming into your most complete, radiant self. More t…
- Ressourcement — The act of returning to one's roots or origins to find renewal — going back to a place, t…
- Dépaysement — The disorienting yet often pleasant feeling of being far from home, immersed in the unfam…