Glisser une peau de banane
Meaning: To engineer someone's public downfall.
Language: French
Literally: To slip someone a banana skin
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The banana skin arrived in French from silent-film comedy, where it was the standard mechanism for an undignified fall. It implies humiliation rather than serious damage.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Battre son plein — To be in full swing.
- Péter les plombs — To lose one's temper completely.
- Faire le point — To take stock of where things stand.
- Pomme de discorde — The particular thing two parties are fighting over.
- En grande pompe — With elaborate ceremony.
- Comme le Pont-Neuf — In excellent shape despite considerable age.
More French idioms
- Enfoncer une porte ouverte — To make a great effort to establish something nobody disputes.
- La portion congrue — A bare minimum, grudgingly given.
- Saoul comme un Polonais — Extremely drunk.
- Défendre son pré carré — To protect one's own territory or area of authority.
- Lâcher la proie pour l'ombre — To give up something real in pursuit of something illusory.
- Nul n'est prophète en son pays — Recognition is hardest to win from the people who know you.
From our untranslatable words
- L'esprit de l'escalier — Thinking of the perfect comeback only after the moment has passed — on your way down the…
- Terroir — The unique character that a place — its soil, climate and tradition — gives to a wine or…
- Râler — To complain and grumble with a certain national flair — a beloved French pastime.
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