Manu militari
Meaning: By force; with physical compulsion.
Language: French
Literally: By military hand
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A Latin ablative kept intact in French legal and journalistic register. It describes an eviction or removal carried out by whoever has the strength to do it.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Faire le matamore — To swagger and bluster without the courage to back it up.
- Vendre la mèche — To give away a secret or a plan.
- Le revers de la médaille — The unwelcome other side of something good.
- À beau mentir qui vient de loin — Travellers' tales cannot be checked, so they are told without restraint.
- Être à la merci de quelqu'un — To be entirely in someone's power.
- La huitième merveille du monde — Something extraordinary — usually said with irony.
More French idioms
- Paris vaut bien une messe — A principle is worth abandoning if the prize is large enough.
- Une messe basse — A whispered aside between two people in company.
- Je vous le donne en mille — You will never guess.
- Une cour des miracles — A squalid, lawless place.
- Affirmer mordicus — To insist on something absolutely and refuse to be moved.
- Être dans les bras de Morphée — To be fast asleep.
From our compliments & insults
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be incurably lazy.
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
- Courir sur le haricot — To get badly on someone's nerves.
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