Dans tous les azimuts
Meaning: In every direction at once; scattered and unfocused.
Language: French
Literally: In all azimuths
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Azimut comes through Latin from Arabic as-sumūt, the directions, and is the horizontal bearing of an object. It entered general French from military and later nuclear-strategy usage, where défense tous azimuts meant readiness against attack from any quarter.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Une tour de Babel — A place of hopeless confusion, especially one where nobody speaks the same language.
- Plier bagage — To pack up and clear off, usually in a hurry.
- Ça fait un bail — It has been ages.
- Un baiser de Judas — A show of affection that conceals a betrayal.
- La balle est dans votre camp — It is your turn to act; the decision now rests with you.
- Convoquer le ban et l'arrière-ban — To call in absolutely everyone available.
More French idioms
- Une république bananière — A corrupt, unstable state run for the benefit of a few private interests.
- Un travail de bénédictin — Painstaking, patient scholarly labor demanding enormous persistence.
- Le benjamin — The youngest member of a family, team or group.
- C'est la Bérézina — A total, chaotic disaster.
- Chercher la petite bête — To nitpick; to hunt for a trivial fault.
- Passer sur le billard — To undergo surgery.
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