compter sur les doigts d’une main
Meaning: To be so few in number that they can be counted on five fingers or fewer.
Language: French
Literally: to count on the fingers of one hand
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The image is literal: when something is rare enough to enumerate on one hand's worth of fingers, it emphasizes extreme scarcity.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- tirer l’oreille — To scold or reprimand someone.
- tirer les oreilles — To scold someone harshly or punish them.
- ne plus savoir où donner de la tête — To be overwhelmed with work or demands.
- avoir les yeux qui sortent de la tête — To stare with eyes wide open in anger or astonishment.
- faire baiser les verges — To force someone you have mistreated to beg your pardon.
- retourner l’estomac — To disgust or sicken someone, to make them feel nauseous.
More French idioms
- faire fureur — To provoke great enthusiasm or widespread popularity.
- pousser les feux — To intensify effort or energy; to redouble one's exertions to achieve a goal.
- courir après les cotillons — To pursue amorous or romantic adventures.
- avoir de la tchatche — To be talkative and persuasive, to have the gift of gab.
- tomber à l’eau — To be canceled or abandoned.
- faire le pont-levis — For a horse to rear up very high.
From our proverbs
- Men strain at gnats, and swallow camels! — Obsessing over trivial faults while tolerating serious wrongs reveals misplaced moral pri…
- Better go about than fall into the ditch. — Taking an indirect, longer route safely beats risking catastrophe through the shortest pa…
- God sends meat, and the devil sends cooks. — Abundance means nothing without the wisdom to use it well; poor execution ruins good fort…