FrenchFaire chou blanc
Meaning: To draw a complete blank; to fail.
Literally: To make a white cabbage
Example: “J'ai fouillé toute la maison pour retrouver mes lunettes, mais j'ai fait chou blanc.” — I searched the whole house for my glasses, but came up empty.
English equivalent: To draw a blank
Origin: From the game of skittles. A throw that knocked down no pins was a coup blanc, a blank shot, already recorded in 1601; chou blanc is a dialect pronunciation of it, which the lexicographer Hippolyte-François Jaubert placed in the Berry region. The Encyclopédie used chou-blanc in 1765, and the Académie française listed faire chou blanc in 1835: at skittles, to knock nothing down, and in general, to miss one's aim.
Equivalents in other languages
English: draw a blank
More French idioms
- Avoir une araignée au plafond To be a little crazy.
- Ça m'en touche une sans faire bouger l'autre I couldn't care less; it leaves me utterly indifferent.
- Prendre son pied To take intense pleasure; to have a wonderful time.
- Il pleut comme vache qui pisse It's pouring down — a crude, vivid way to say the rain is coming down extremely hard.
- Mettre la puce à l'oreille To arouse someone's suspicion or make them uneasy about something.
- Sortir de ses gonds To fly into a rage; to lose one's temper suddenly and violently.
Explore another collection: False Friends
Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
- Coin Actually means 'corner'. A coin you spend is une pièce.
- Chance Actually means 'luck'. Bonne chance! = Good luck! For chance (probability), say une possi…
- Sympathique Actually means 'nice' or 'pleasant'. Il est très sympathique = He's very nice — not 'He's…
Keep exploring