Faut pas pousser mémé dans les orties
Meaning: Don't push it; don't take it too far.
Language: French
Literally: You mustn't push granny into the nettles
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The base of it is simply faut pas pousser — don't overdo it — whose own origin is unknown and whose appearance is put in the first half of the 20th century. The metaphor underneath is unambiguous: push too hard and you damage whatever you are pushing. Mémé and the nettles are pure reinforcement, and the comedy of the image is why this version is heard far more often than faut pas pousser le bouchon trop loin (don't push the cork too far), which means exactly the same thing.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Être à l'ouest — To be out of it; not with it at all.
- Sur la paille — Reduced to real poverty.
- Avoir un nom à coucher dehors — To have a name nobody can pronounce or remember.
- Être dans les petits papiers de quelqu'un — To be in someone's good books; to enjoy their favor.
- Faire un pataquès — To make a clumsy verbal slip, or a blunder generally; also, to make an enormous fuss over…
- Patin couffin — And so on and so forth; et cetera.
More French idioms
- À l'œil — Free of charge.
- L'avoir dans l'os — To come off badly; to be had.
- Avoir des oursins dans la poche / Avoir des oursins dans le porte-monnaie — To be tight-fisted.
- Coûter la peau des fesses / Coûter les yeux de la tête — To cost an absolute fortune.
- Rouler un patin / Rouler une galoche — To kiss deeply, with tongue.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
From our false friends
- Actuel — Actually means 'current' or 'present-day'. Actuellement = currently — not 'actually'.
- Blesser — Actually means 'to wound' or 'to injure'. Je suis blessé = I am injured — not blessed.
- Location — Actually means 'rental'. Une location de voiture = a car rental. For location (place), sa…
Loading the full interactive collection…