Avoir un poil dans la main
Meaning: To be extremely lazy.
Language: French
Literally: To have a hair in the hand
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: First recorded with its modern sense in 1808, in Charles-Louis d'Hautel's dictionary of low-register French, defined there as being disposed to do nothing at all. Nobody has ever settled why the hair is there, though the guesses agree on the logic even without a documented source: hands that are never used, and so never rubbed or worn by any friction, are free to grow one where a busy hand never could. A cheekier variant imagines the hair as something precious you were trusted to hold, giving you the perfect excuse — a closed fist — for refusing every task afterward.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Prendre ses jambes à son cou — To run away very fast.
- Se lever du pied gauche — To wake up in a bad mood.
- Mettre les pieds dans le plat — To put one's foot in it; to say something awkward or blunt.
- avoir des fourmis — Experiencing a tingling or prickling sensation in a limb losing circulation.
- avoir un chat dans la gorge — Having difficulty speaking due to hoarseness or a sore throat.
- avoir un bleu — Having a bruise on the skin from impact or injury.
More French idioms
- C'est la croix et la bannière — It is an enormous effort or ordeal.
- Faire la fine bouche — To be overly picky or hard to please.
- Avoir le vent en poupe — To be doing very well; everything is going your way.
- Tourner autour du pot — To beat around the bush.
- Avoir la tête dans les nuages — To be a daydreamer; out of touch with reality.
- Casser du sucre sur le dos de quelqu'un — To talk behind someone's back.
From our untranslatable words
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