FrenchFait comme un rat
Meaning: Trapped, with no way out.
Literally: Done for like a rat
Example: “Encerclé par la police sur le toit, le cambrioleur était fait comme un rat.” — Surrounded by police on the roof, the burglar was caught like a rat in a trap.
English equivalent: Like a rat in a trap
Equivalents in other languages
English: like a rat in a trap
Origin: The comparison comme un rat runs from the middle of the 16th century and has never once been flattering — French also had pauvre comme un rat d'église and, closer to this, pris et cuit comme un rat, which is the same idea and is attested in 1725. Fait carries its slang sense of finished, done for: the animal is in the trap, cannot get out, and its fate is no longer in question. The modern wording is first attested in 1932, in Céline. Some suppose it was born in the trenches of the First World War, where men dug in with the rats spent a good deal of their time catching them.
More French idioms
- Le roi n'est pas son cousin He is beside himself with happiness — and sometimes rather too pleased with himself.
- Travailler pour le roi de Prusse To work for nothing.
- Se magner la rondelle To get a move on. Vulgar.
- Rôtir le balai To live in poverty — and later, to live a life of debauchery.
- Avoir les deux pieds dans le même sabot To be incapable of acting; to sit there doing nothing.
- Dormir comme un sabot To sleep very deeply.
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- Après la pluie, le beau temps Bad times are followed by good ones.
- Il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tué Don't count on a gain before you actually have it.
- Loin des yeux, loin du cœur When people are apart, their feelings for each other fade.
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