Lâcher la proie pour l'ombre
Meaning: To give up something real in pursuit of something illusory.
Language: French
Literally: To drop the prey for the shadow
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From Aesop's dog crossing a stream with meat in its jaws, which snaps at its own reflection and loses the meat. La Fontaine's version fixed the phrase in French.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Nul n'est prophète en son pays — Recognition is hardest to win from the people who know you.
- Une victoire à la Pyrrhus — A win whose cost makes it indistinguishable from defeat.
- En quarantaine — In quarantine; isolated from contact.
- Tomber en quenouille — To decline into neglect; to fall apart through mismanagement.
- Sans queue ni tête — Making no sense at all.
- Être sur le qui-vive — To be tensely alert.
More French idioms
- En rade — Stranded; left behind.
- Faire du ramdam — To make a great deal of noise.
- Un remède de bonne femme — A folk cure of doubtful value.
- Tirer sa révérence — To take one's leave, with a show of formality.
- À tour de rôle — Each in turn.
- Un rond-de-cuir — A petty bureaucrat.
From our tongue twisters
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
- Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès. — An 's' / 'si' minefield.
- Dans ta tente ta tante t'attend. — A gentle 'ta / ten / tan / t'' warm-up that sounds faster than it reads.
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