être aux petits soins
Meaning: Receiving attentive, careful treatment and consideration from someone.
Language: French
Literally: to be at small cares
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Petits soins meant something more particular in the 17th century than gentle nursing care: it was the vocabulary of courtship, the small deliberate attentions a suitor paid the person he was pursuing. Molière has the phrase with that exact sense in L'École des femmes in 1662. The wording once needed a preposition — aux petits soins avec or auprès de quelqu'un — both now obsolete, leaving only être aux petits soins pour quelqu'un, which kept the tone of devoted, almost romantic attentiveness long after the courtship itself dropped out of the picture.
More idioms — Daily Life
- faire un esclandre — Creating a public disturbance or embarrassing scene.
- faire la fortune de quelqu'un — Bringing great wealth or success to another person.
- être sur la brèche — Being actively engaged in battle or difficult work.
- être du voyage — Being involved in an illicit or questionable scheme.
- faire le gendarme — Acting authoritarian or enforcing rules with excessive zeal.
- irse por los cerros de Úbeda — To digress or wander off-topic during conversation without purpose or reason.
More French idioms
- montrer les dents — Displaying aggression, defiance, or readiness to fight.
- avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre — Taking more food than one can actually eat; wanting too much.
- être un ours — Being unfriendly, grumpy, and difficult to approach socially.
- avoir une mémoire d'éléphant — Having exceptional ability to remember details over time.
- avoir une langue de vipère — Speaking maliciously, spreading rumors, or being verbally cruel.
- faire ses griffes — Practicing or preparing oneself for a challenging task or confrontation.
From our compliments & insults
- Bête comme ses pieds — Really not very bright.
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be incurably lazy.
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.