Être sujet à caution
Meaning: To be unreliable; not to be taken at face value.
Language: French
Literally: To be subject to surety
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A caution was the guarantor or security required from someone whose word alone would not do. Being subject to one is being the kind of party for whom a guarantee has to be demanded.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Caviarder un texte — To censor a piece of writing by blacking out passages.
- Se serrer la ceinture — To economize and go without.
- La femme de César ne doit pas être soupçonnée — Those in public office must be above even the appearance of wrongdoing.
- Se réduire comme une peau de chagrin — To dwindle away steadily until nothing is left.
- Appuyer sur le champignon — To accelerate hard; to floor it.
- Devoir une fière chandelle à quelqu'un — To owe someone a considerable debt of gratitude.
More French idioms
- Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle — The effort or cost outweighs anything to be gained.
- Tenir la chandelle — To be the awkward third party to a couple.
- Sur les chapeaux de roues — At top speed; also, of a start, immediately and forcefully.
- Avoir voix au chapitre — To have a say in a decision.
- Trouver chaussure à son pied — To find exactly the right match, usually a partner.
- Ne pas y aller par quatre chemins — To come straight to the point.
From our tongue twisters
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. — A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
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