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En rade

Meaning: Stranded; left behind.

Language: French

Literally: In the roadstead

Category: Daily Life

Origin: A rade is the sheltered anchorage outside a harbor, where a ship waits without being properly in port. Being left there is being neither underway nor arrived.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • Faire du ramdam — To make a great deal of noise.
  • Un remède de bonne femme — A folk cure of doubtful value.
  • Tirer sa révérence — To take one's leave, with a show of formality.
  • À tour de rôle — Each in turn.
  • Un rond-de-cuir — A petty bureaucrat.
  • Au bout du rouleau — Completely exhausted; at the end of one's resources.

More French idioms

  • Hommes de sac et de corde — Thorough scoundrels.
  • L'affaire est dans le sac — It is as good as settled.
  • Mettre à sac — To plunder a place completely.
  • À bon entendeur, salut — A word to the wise — take the hint.
  • Bon sang ! — Good grief — an exclamation of exasperation.
  • Bon sang ne saurait mentir — Breeding shows in the end.

From our compliments & insults

  • C'est une vraie chèvre — They're hopelessly stubborn and infuriating — a goat that refuses to be moved.
  • Casse-pieds — A massive bore or pain in the neck — someone who wears you down with their irritating way…
  • Espèce de patate — You dim bulb — a potato being the very picture of inert, unthinking stodginess.

Browse all compliments & insults →

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