Envers et contre tous
Meaning: In defiance of universal opposition.
Language: French
Literally: Towards and against all
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Envers here carries its old sense of facing or confronting rather than the modern towards. The pairing is a legal formula of the kind that survives long after its grammar stops making sense.
More idioms — Daily Life
- À l'envi — Vying with one another; each trying to outdo the rest.
- Jeter l'éponge — To give up and concede.
- Passer l'éponge — To forgive and say no more about it.
- L'esprit de l'escalier — The perfect retort that arrives only after you have left.
- Tomber dans l'escarcelle de quelqu'un — To end up in someone's possession, often without their working for it.
- À bon escient — Advisedly; with proper judgment about when to do it.
More French idioms
- Des espèces sonnantes et trébuchantes — Hard cash, as opposed to promises or credit.
- D'estoc et de taille — With everything one has, by every available means.
- Ne connaître ni d'Ève ni d'Adam — Not to know someone at all.
- Fauché comme les blés — Completely broke.
- S'inscrire en faux — To formally deny something and challenge its truth.
- Cherchez la femme — There is a woman behind this somewhere.
From our tongue twisters
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. — A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
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