Cousu de fil blanc
Meaning: So obvious that the deception is plainly visible.
Language: French
Literally: Sewn with white thread
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A seam sewn in white thread on dark cloth announces itself from across the room, which is exactly what a repair is meant not to do. The phrase is used of pretexts and alibis.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Mettre le doigt dans l'engrenage — To take a first small step that drags you into something far larger.
- Le dos au feu et le ventre à table — In a state of complete physical contentment.
- Marquer à la culotte — To watch someone so closely they cannot move freely.
- Revoir sa copie — To go back and rework a proposal that has been rejected.
- De fil en aiguille — One thing leading to another.
- Un fil d'Ariane — A guiding thread through something impossibly complicated.
More French idioms
- Ronger son frein — To wait in barely contained impatience.
- Jeter sa gourme — To sow one's wild oats.
- Tirer à hue et à dia — To pull in opposite directions; to work at cross purposes.
- Une grenouille de bénitier — A woman conspicuously and tiresomely devout.
- Faire le pied de grue — To stand around waiting for a long time.
- Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps — A single encouraging sign does not prove a trend.
From our tongue twisters
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
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