Il y a de l'eau dans le gaz
Meaning: Trouble is brewing; a quarrel is on the way.
Language: French
Literally: There is water in the gas
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A kitchen metaphor from the early 20th century, with two candidate origins. The first is the familiar disaster of a pan boiling over on a gas ring: first steam, then the flame drowns, then the unlit gas keeps coming and will go up if nobody reaches the tap — it starts by smoking and ends in an explosion, which is exactly the shape of a quarrel. Claude Duneton prefers the second. The coal gas once piped into houses carried a lot of water vapor, which in the right conditions condensed and pooled in the pipes until it blocked them. There was then, quite literally, water in the gas, announced by the flame turning orange before it died — and with dinner no longer cookable, the row that followed needed no metaphor at all.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Faire du gringue — To chat someone up, insistently.
- Être gonflé / Ne pas manquer d'air — To be recklessly bold — or, said with irritation, to have a great deal of nerve.
- Tirer au flanc / Tirer au cul — To dodge work; to shirk.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Avoir le cul entre deux chaises — To be indecisive, caught between two options.
More French idioms
- Pas folle, la guêpe ! — Said of someone shrewd enough not to be taken in.
- En rester comme deux ronds de flan — To be utterly dumbfounded.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
From our compliments & insults
- Tu as le vent en poupe — Everything is going your way — you're riding a wave of momentum and success.
- Tu es un as — You're brilliant at what you do — the very best.
- Tu as de la répartie — You're brilliantly quick-witted — always ready with the perfect comeback.
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