FrenchCourir après les cotillons
Meaning: To pursue amorous or romantic adventures.
Literally: To run after the petticoats
Example: “À soixante ans passés, il court encore après les cotillons.” — Well past sixty, he's still chasing skirts.
English equivalent: To chase skirts
Other ways to say this
- French: Un chaud lapin Literally: A hot rabbit
English: chase skirts
Origin: The cotillon here is not the dance but the petticoat, the underskirt that the Académie française describes as worn above all by working women and peasant girls. The garment stands for the woman: the Académie noted in 1762 that a man who "loves the cotillon" is fond of women, and courir le cotillon (to chase the petticoat) is in its 1932 edition. Courir après les cotillons is the same idea, and like coureur de jupons (skirt-chaser) it is said of men.
More French idioms
- Tirer les oreilles To scold someone harshly or punish them.
- Tomber à l’eau To be canceled or abandoned.
- 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 le pont-levis For a horse to rear up very high.
- Faire baiser les verges To force someone you have mistreated to beg your pardon.
Explore another collection: Proverbs
Short sayings of timeless wisdom from more than 50 cultures, each with its meaning and origin.
- Avec des si, on mettrait Paris en bouteille Speculating about what might have been is pointless.
- Faute de grives, on mange des merles When you can't have what you want, you make do with what's available.
- Tout vient à point à qui sait attendre Patience is rewarded in the end.
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