Être en odeur de sainteté
Meaning: To be in favor with someone in authority.
Language: French
Literally: To be in the odor of sanctity
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From the sweet smell reported to rise from the bodies of certain saints after death, offered as evidence in canonization proceedings. Modern French uses it almost exclusively in the negative.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Œil pour œil, dent pour dent / La loi du talion — Retaliation exactly proportionate to the injury.
- Tuer dans l'œuf — To stop something before it can develop.
- À pied d'œuvre — On site and ready to begin.
- S'occuper de ses oignons — To mind one's own business.
- Pousser des cris d'orfraie — To protest with theatrical outrage.
- Un ouvrier de la onzième heure — A latecomer who receives the same reward as those who did the work.
More French idioms
- La paille et la poutre — Noticing a small fault in others while ignoring a large one in oneself.
- Un homme de paille — A front man acting for someone who stays hidden.
- Envoyer paître — To tell someone to get lost.
- La boîte de Pandore — Something that releases a host of troubles once opened.
- Le dessus du panier — The pick of the crop; the best of a group.
- Un panier percé — Someone incapable of holding on to money.
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.
Browse all compliments & insults →
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