Charger la mule
Meaning: To pile on far too much; to overcharge someone.
Language: French
Literally: To load the mule
Category: Animals
Origin: The mule carried whatever it was given until it stopped, which made it the standard measure of an unreasonable load. The commercial sense of overcharging followed from the same image.
More idioms — Animals
- Ne pas valoir un pet de lapin — To be entirely worthless.
- Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop — You cannot permanently suppress your real character.
- Comme un poisson dans l'eau — Completely at ease in one's element.
- Tuer la poule aux œufs d'or — To destroy a source of steady profit out of greed for all of it at once.
- Écrire un poulet à quelqu'un — To send a love letter.
- À la queue leu leu — In single file, one behind another.
More French idioms
- C'est la mer à boire — It is an impossible or endless task — most often used in the negative.
- Faire son miel de quelque chose — To turn something to one's own advantage.
- La substantifique moelle — The essential substance of something, reached only by real effort.
- On ne fait pas d'omelette sans casser des œufs — Worthwhile results require some damage along the way.
- Refiler la patate chaude — To hand an awkward problem to someone else.
- Dans le pétrin — In serious trouble.
From our compliments & insults
- Espèce de patate — You dim bulb — a potato being the very picture of inert, unthinking stodginess.
- Quel râleur / quelle râleuse — You never stop moaning — everything is a complaint, nothing is ever good enough.
- Peau de vache — A mean, difficult, and unpleasant person — tough and unyielding like tanned hide.
Browse all compliments & insults →
Loading the full interactive collection…