Depuis belle lurette
Meaning: For ages; for a very long time.
Language: French
Literally: Since a fine little hour
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Lurette is a worn-down form of heurette, a little hour, so the phrase means since a good long while. The word survives nowhere else, which is why it looks like nonsense.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Depuis des lustres — For a very long time.
- Pleurer comme une Madeleine — To cry copiously and without restraint.
- Une madeleine de Proust — A small sensory trigger that unlocks a flood of memory.
- Avoir maille à partir avec quelqu'un — To have a quarrel or a bone to pick with someone.
- Faire main basse sur quelque chose — To seize something wholesale.
- S'en laver les mains — To disclaim all responsibility for an outcome.
More French idioms
- Tout le saint-frusquin — The whole lot; everything one owns.
- Des yeux de merlan frit — A soppy, languishing look.
- Payer en monnaie de singe — To pay with worthless promises instead of money.
- La montagne accouche d'une souris — A vast effort or grand announcement produces something trivial.
- La mouche du coche — Someone who bustles importantly while contributing nothing.
- On n'attrape pas les mouches avec du vinaigre — Gentleness achieves what harshness cannot.
From our tongue twisters
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
- 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.
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