Être dans de beaux draps
Meaning: To be in a real mess.
Language: French
Literally: To be in fine sheets
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Ironic; 'beaux draps' once evoked being publicly shamed in nothing but one's bedsheets.
Equivalents in other languages
- Portuguese: estar com a corda no pescoço — literally: to be with the rope around the neck
- English: up the creek without a paddle — literally: up the creek without a paddle
- Czech: Být v rejži — literally: To be in the rice
More idioms — Daily Life
- Tirer le diable par la queue — To struggle to make ends meet.
- Mettre la charrue avant les bœufs — To do things in the wrong order.
- Tirer son épingle du jeu — To extract yourself cleverly from a tricky situation.
- To burn the midnight oil — To work late into the night.
- To throw a spanner in the works — To sabotage or disrupt a plan.
- A skeleton in the closet — A shameful secret kept hidden.
More French idioms
- Se faire rouler dans la farine — To be conned or deceived.
- Passer du coq à l'âne — To switch topics abruptly and illogically.
- Avoir le melon — To be bigheaded and conceited.
- Avoir le cœur sur la main — To be very generous and giving.
- Être soupe au lait — To be quick-tempered and flare up easily.
- Ne pas être sorti de l'auberge — To be far from done with one's troubles.
From our compliments & insults
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
- Courir sur le haricot — To get badly on someone's nerves.
- Tu as du chien — You have a certain irresistible magnetism — a je-ne-sais-quoi that draws people in.