FrenchÊtre dos au mur
Meaning: To be in a desperate situation with no way to retreat or escape.
Literally: To be back to the wall
Example: “À une semaine de l'échéance, sans financement, l'équipe est dos au mur.” — A week from the deadline and with no funding, the team has its back to the wall.
English equivalent: To have one's back to the wall
Equivalents in other languages
Japanese: 四面楚歌 (Shimensoka) Literally: Four sides all singing Chu songs
English: have one's back to the wall
Origin: Someone with their back to a wall cannot retreat any farther and must face whatever is in front of them. The phrase itself has no recorded date: it appears neither in Littré nor in the Académie française's dictionaries of 1694, 1762, 1798, 1835 and 1932, and Wiktionnaire marks its date as unknown. The scene is old, though: the Académie's first dictionary (1694) illustrates adosser (to set one's back against) with a man who set his back to the wall and so held off his attackers. Those dictionaries also have a close cousin, mettre quelqu'un au pied du mur (to put someone at the foot of the wall), listed in 1762 for leaving someone no way out. English uses the same picture in "with one's back to the wall."
More French idioms
- Se mettre la rate au court-bouillon To worry pointlessly and obsessively over something.
- Prendre à la gorge To seize someone or something forcefully; to make breathing or speech difficult; to trigg…
- Regarder la pointe de ses souliers To lower one's eyes in embarrassment or shame.
- Faire florès To achieve success and build a reputation.
- Fuir comme la peste To avoid something or someone as much as possible.
- Beurrer épais (Quebec French) To exaggerate or overdo something.
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