FrenchFourrer son nez dans les affaires de quelqu'un
Meaning: To meddle or pry indiscreetly into someone else's affairs.
Literally: To stick one's nose into someone's business
Example: “Arrête de fourrer ton nez dans les affaires de ta sœur.” — Stop poking your nose into your sister's business.
English equivalent: To poke one's nose into someone's business
Equivalents in other languages
English: poke one's nose into
Origin: Fourrer is to stuff or shove something in, and the nose goes first into everything a curious person investigates. The Académie française's first dictionary (1694) already says of a busybody that il fourre son nez partout (he shoves his nose in everywhere), and the poet Mathurin Régnier, in his early 17th-century Satires, swore he would rather be crucified than put his nose where he had no business. English pokes its nose in the same way.
More French idioms
- Remettre en selle To help someone recover a former position or regain their footing after a setback.
- Prendre des gants To handle a delicate matter with great tact and care to avoid offending someone.
- Remettre en train To restart or reactivate something that has stopped or slowed down.
- Vendre chèrement sa peau To defend oneself fiercely and make a determined stand against those trying to kill you.
- C'est la fin des haricots It's all over; there's no hope left.
- Le dindon de la farce The dupe — the victim of a trick who ends up everyone's laughingstock.
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