IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchCorvéable à merci
Meaning: Available to be worked without limit and without recourse.
Literally: Liable to forced labor at will
Example: “Les stagiaires ne sont pas corvéables à merci.” — Interns are not at your beck and call.
English equivalent: At someone's beck and call
Equivalents in other languages
English: at someone's beck and call
Origin: The corvée was the unpaid labor a lord could demand of his tenants, and taillable et corvéable à merci described those subject to it without restriction. The phrase survived the Revolution as a complaint about employers.
More French idioms
- Une fois n'est pas coutume One exception does not establish a habit.
- Pendre la crémaillère To hold a housewarming.
- Riche comme Crésus Enormously wealthy.
- La critique est aisée, mais l'art est difficile Faulting a work costs nothing compared with making one.
- Tant va la cruche à l'eau qu'à la fin elle se casse Repeated risk-taking eventually catches up with you.
- Porter la culotte To be the one who makes the decisions in a household.
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