Être mis sur la touche
Meaning: To be sidelined and left out of things.
Language: French
Literally: To be put on the touchline
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The touche is the touchline in football, beyond which play stops. Someone put there is still present and no longer participating, which is the specific humiliation involved.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Botter en touche — To dodge a question by changing the subject.
- Une tour d'ivoire — A position of deliberate detachment from ordinary life.
- La tournée des grands-ducs — A lavish night out taking in every fashionable establishment.
- Un coup de Trafalgar — A sudden catastrophic reversal, often felt to be underhand.
- Doré sur tranche — Extremely wealthy; luxuriously appointed.
- Le bout du tunnel — The first sign that a long difficulty is ending.
More French idioms
- Brûler ses vaisseaux — To destroy any possibility of retreat.
- Vérité en deçà des Pyrénées, erreur au-delà — What counts as true depends on which side of a border you stand.
- Un vieux de la vieille — A veteran of long standing.
- En quatrième vitesse — At top speed; as fast as possible.
- Au temps pour moi — My mistake.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
From our compliments & insults
- 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.
- Tu as la tête sur les épaules — You're grounded, sensible, and dependable — not easily swept off course.
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