IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchChercher des misères
Meaning: To deliberately provoke a quarrel with someone.
Literally: To search for miseries
Example: “Arrête de chercher des misères à ta sœur et laisse-la finir ses devoirs.” — Stop picking on your sister and let her finish her homework.
Origin: Misère here is not poverty but a petty annoyance: French says faire des misères à quelqu'un for teasing or pestering someone, and the word keeps that sense of small, needling trouble. To chercher des misères is to go looking for that kind of trouble with someone, as chercher des noises is to go looking for a quarrel. It belongs to colloquial 20th-century French, and Simenon uses it in 1931.
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- Mettre ses deux mains au feu To stake one's reputation or safety by guaranteeing something is true.
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