FrenchCouper le sifflet à quelqu'un
Meaning: To silence someone abruptly, usually with an unanswerable point.
Literally: To cut someone's whistle
Example: “Sa réponse chiffrée a coupé le sifflet au contradicteur.” — Her answer, backed by figures, took the wind out of her opponent's sails.
English equivalent: To take the wind out of someone's sails
Equivalents in other languages
English: take the wind out of someone's sails
Origin: The phrase arrives in the 16th century meaning something a great deal worse than it does now. Figuratively sifflet was the gullet — the passage the windpipe runs through, which really can whistle in certain illnesses — so cutting someone's sifflet was cutting their throat, an approach to winning an argument that at least has the merit of being final. French also had serrer le sifflet, to strangle. It is only across the 18th century that the sense softens into the modern one, where what stops the other person talking is astonishment, indignation or fright rather than a blade.
More French idioms
- De la poudre de perlimpinpin A worthless remedy sold with great confidence.
- Un lit de Procuste A standard imposed regardless of what it does to the thing being measured.
- Le rocher de Sisyphe A labor that must be repeated forever and never completes.
- Le supplice de Tantale Having what one wants permanently in sight and permanently out of reach.
- Une solution de continuité A break or gap — not, despite appearances, a solution to anything.
- Demain, on rase gratis A promise perpetually postponed.
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