De fil en aiguille
Meaning: One thing leading to another.
Language: French
Literally: From thread to needle
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Sewing supplies the sequence: the thread is chosen, then it is put to the needle, and the work follows from there. The phrase describes a drift rather than a plan.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Un fil d'Ariane — A guiding thread through something impossibly complicated.
- En file indienne — In single file, one behind another.
- La fin justifie les moyens — A worthwhile goal excuses whatever it takes to reach it.
- Conter fleurette — To woo someone with sweet talk.
- Des manœuvres florentines — Devious, elaborately indirect political scheming.
- De bonne foi — Sincerely, without intent to deceive.
More French idioms
- S'attirer les foudres de quelqu'un — To bring down someone's wrath on oneself.
- Ne pas pouvoir être au four et au moulin — To be unable to be in two places at once.
- Épater la galerie — To show off for the benefit of onlookers.
- Sans crier gare — Without any warning at all.
- Une promesse de Gascon — A promise nobody expects to be kept.
- Vouer aux gémonies — To denounce someone publicly and utterly.
From our tongue twisters
- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. — A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. — A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
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