Faire le matamore
Meaning: To swagger and bluster without the courage to back it up.
Language: French
Literally: To play the Matamore
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Matamore was the boastful cowardly soldier of Spanish comedy, his name meaning Moor-killer — a claim the character never once makes good. He passed into French theater and then into ordinary speech.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Vendre la mèche — To give away a secret or a plan.
- Le revers de la médaille — The unwelcome other side of something good.
- À beau mentir qui vient de loin — Travellers' tales cannot be checked, so they are told without restraint.
- Être à la merci de quelqu'un — To be entirely in someone's power.
- La huitième merveille du monde — Something extraordinary — usually said with irony.
- Paris vaut bien une messe — A principle is worth abandoning if the prize is large enough.
More French idioms
- Une messe basse — A whispered aside between two people in company.
- Je vous le donne en mille — You will never guess.
- Une cour des miracles — A squalid, lawless place.
- Affirmer mordicus — To insist on something absolutely and refuse to be moved.
- Être dans les bras de Morphée — To be fast asleep.
- Prendre au mot — To hold someone to exactly what they said.
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