Devoir une fière chandelle à quelqu'un
Meaning: To owe someone a considerable debt of gratitude.
Language: French
Literally: To owe someone a proud candle
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Candles were offered to a saint in thanks for deliverance, and the size of the candle matched the size of the escape. A fière chandelle is a conspicuously large one, so the debt being acknowledged is a serious one.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle — The effort or cost outweighs anything to be gained.
- Tenir la chandelle — To be the awkward third party to a couple.
- Sur les chapeaux de roues — At top speed; also, of a start, immediately and forcefully.
- Avoir voix au chapitre — To have a say in a decision.
- Trouver chaussure à son pied — To find exactly the right match, usually a partner.
- Ne pas y aller par quatre chemins — To come straight to the point.
More French idioms
- Tous les chemins mènent à Rome — There are many routes to the same result.
- Un chevalier d'industrie — A swindler who lives by his wits at others' expense.
- La cheville ouvrière — The linchpin — the person or thing on which an entire operation turns.
- Une chiffe molle — A spineless person with no will of their own.
- Être au septième ciel — To be in a state of perfect happiness.
- Mettre la clé sous la porte — To shut up shop; to go out of business.
From our proverbs
- Two of a trade seldom agree. — Rivals in the same business rarely agree; competition breeds friction between them.
- Agues come on horseback, but go away on foot. — Sickness arrives suddenly but lingers, leaving far more slowly than it came.
- A man cannot live by the air. — No one survives on nothing; real sustenance, not mere hope, is required.
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