Faire avancer le schmilblick
Meaning: To make actual progress on something.
Language: French
Literally: To move the schmilblick forward
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: The schmilblick was a nonsense object invented by Pierre Dac in a 1949 radio sketch, defined entirely by contradictions. A 1969 television game show took the name, and Coluche's parody made the phrase permanent.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Avaler des poires d'angoisse — To endure something bitterly painful.
- En cinq sec — In no time at all.
- Une tarte à la crème — A tired cliché trotted out as though it were an argument.
- Décrocher la timbale — To carry off the prize.
- Trier sur le volet — To hand-pick with great care.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
More French idioms
- Jeter de la poudre aux yeux — To create a dazzling false impression.
- Tenir à quelque chose comme à la prunelle de ses yeux — To guard something as one's most precious possession.
- Allumer ses quinquets — To open one's eyes and pay attention.
- Couper le sifflet à quelqu'un — To silence someone abruptly, usually with an unanswerable point.
- Être dans ses petits souliers — To be acutely ill at ease.
- Mordre la poussière — To be defeated; to fall.
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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