Décrocher la timbale
Meaning: To carry off the prize.
Language: French
Literally: To unhook the drinking cup
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Fairs set a timbale, a metal cup, at the top of a greased pole for whoever could climb it. The prize was modest and the climb was the entertainment, which is roughly the tone the phrase keeps.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Trier sur le volet — To hand-pick with great care.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Raconter des salades — To tell lies or tall tales.
- En faire tout un fromage — To make a big deal out of nothing.
More French idioms
- À tue-tête — At the top of one's voice.
- Dire ses quatre vérités à quelqu'un — To tell someone exactly what is wrong with them.
- Avoir la main verte — To have a gift for growing plants.
- Entrer dans le vif du sujet — To get to the heart of the matter.
- Une vérité de La Palice / Une lapalissade — A statement so obvious it is comic — a truism.
- Prendre des vessies pour des lanternes — To be grossly deceived about something.
From our proverbs
- To forget a wrong is the best revenge. — Holding onto grievance poisons the grudge-bearer while freeing the offender from further…
- Every man is the architect of his fortune. — Individual choices and actions, not circumstance, determine the outcomes and success one…
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