IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchMettre à sac
Meaning: To plunder a place completely.
Literally: To put to the sack
Example: “Pendant la nuit, des pillards ont mis à sac les magasins du centre.” — During the night, looters ransacked the downtown stores.
Origin: The sack is the container the loot was carried off in, and the phrase is the same one English keeps in sacking a city. It describes systematic stripping, not damage.
More French idioms
- Nourri dans le sérail Brought up inside an institution and knowing all its workings.
- Ce n'est pas une sinécure It is not an easy job.
- Une chasse aux sorcières A campaign of persecution driven by suspicion rather than evidence.
- Pas besoin de sortir de Saint-Cyr It doesn't take a genius to work that out.
- Faire table rase To sweep everything away and start from nothing.
- Prendre le taureau par les cornes To tackle a difficulty head-on instead of avoiding it.
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- Bête comme ses pieds Really not very bright.
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