Il y a loin de la coupe aux lèvres
Meaning: Much can still go wrong between intention and result.
Language: French
Literally: It is far from the cup to the lips
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: From a Greek story in which Ancaeus, told by a seer he would never drink his own vintage, raised the cup to mock the prophecy and was called away to fight a boar that killed him. English says there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Né avec une cuillère d'argent dans la bouche — Born into wealth and advantage.
- Des économies de bouts de chandelle — Petty economies that save nothing worth having.
- Un étouffe-chrétien — Food so dense and stodgy it is hard to swallow.
- Mettre de l'eau dans son vin — To moderate one's demands or soften one's position.
- De derrière les fagots — The very best, kept back for a special occasion.
- À la fortune du pot — Taking potluck; sharing whatever happens to be cooking.
More French idioms
- Avoir les coudées franches — To have complete freedom of action.
- Battre sa coulpe — To publicly acknowledge one's own wrongdoing.
- Le petit doigt sur la couture du pantalon — Standing rigidly to attention; obeying without question.
- Ôter une épine du pied à quelqu'un — To relieve someone of a persistent difficulty.
- Un écorché vif — Someone painfully hypersensitive to everything around them.
- Se croire sorti de la cuisse de Jupiter — To have an absurdly high opinion of one's own importance.
From our untranslatable words
- Épanouissement — The full flourishing of a person — blooming into your most complete, radiant self. More t…
- Ressourcement — The act of returning to one's roots or origins to find renewal — going back to a place, t…
- Dépaysement — The disorienting yet often pleasant feeling of being far from home, immersed in the unfam…
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