brûler ses dernières cartouches
Meaning: to exhaust one's final resources or use one's last arguments in desperation.
Language: French
Literally: to burn one's last cartridges
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Military origin; the image is of a soldier firing the last ammunition in his pouch, left with no defensive or offensive power once the cartridges are spent.
More idioms — Daily Life
- passer un mauvais quart d’heure — to experience a brief but unpleasant or distressing moment.
- envoyer des piques — To make cutting or barbed remarks intended to irritate or provoke someone.
- prendre le train en marche — To join opportunely in an action or endeavor already underway.
- aiguiser ses couteaux — To prepare oneself for conflict or confrontation.
- passer le Rubicon — To make a decisive, irrevocable commitment or choice with serious consequences.
- être à ramasser à la petite cuiller — To be completely exhausted, utterly without strength.
More French idioms
- ne s’être pas regardé — to judge others harshly while being blind to one's own equal or greater faults.
- ne pas tourner rond — to be unwell or not functioning properly.
- prendre le maquis — To go into hiding or join a resistance movement to escape authority or persecution.
- ne pas en croire ses oreilles — To be startled or disbelieving upon hearing something astonishing.
- se composer le visage — To adopt a serious or carefully studied expression suited to the circumstances.
- être de mauvais poil — To be in a bad mood or irritable disposition.
From our tongue twisters
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.