envoyer des piques
Meaning: To make cutting or barbed remarks intended to irritate or provoke someone.
Language: French
Literally: to send pikes
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The phrase pictures words as weapons—pikes are spears—that wound or prick the listener.
More idioms — Daily Life
- prendre le train en marche — To join opportunely in an action or endeavor already underway.
- aiguiser ses couteaux — To prepare oneself for conflict or confrontation.
- passer le Rubicon — To make a decisive, irrevocable commitment or choice with serious consequences.
- être à ramasser à la petite cuiller — To be completely exhausted, utterly without strength.
- être du propre — Used ironically to criticize something as morally or physically filthy.
- mettre à terre — To defeat or knock someone down.
More French idioms
- prendre le maquis — To go into hiding or join a resistance movement to escape authority or persecution.
- ne pas en croire ses oreilles — To be startled or disbelieving upon hearing something astonishing.
- se composer le visage — To adopt a serious or carefully studied expression suited to the circumstances.
- être de mauvais poil — To be in a bad mood or irritable disposition.
- casser le nez à coups d’encensoir — To offer someone clumsy, exaggerated, and insincere flattery to their face.
- se casser la figure — To fall to the ground; to have an accident or suffer a collapse.
From our proverbs
- Grief pent up will burst the heart. — Unexpressed sorrow accumulates internally until it causes emotional and physical harm.
- The mill cannot grind with the water that is past. — Dwelling on past opportunities wastes energy; focus your effort on present circumstances…
- An unbidden guest must bring his own stool with him. — Uninvited visitors cannot expect hospitality and must accommodate themselves without burd…