Mettre à sac
Meaning: To plunder a place completely.
Language: French
Literally: To put to the sack
Category: Daily Life
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 idioms — Daily Life
- À bon entendeur, salut — A word to the wise — take the hint.
- Bon sang ! — Good grief — an exclamation of exasperation.
- Bon sang ne saurait mentir — Breeding shows in the end.
- Séance tenante — Then and there, without adjournment.
- Un coup de semonce — A deliberate warning, delivered before real consequences.
- Un train de sénateur — A slow, dignified gait.
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.
From our compliments & insults
- Bête comme ses pieds — Really not very bright.
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be incurably lazy.
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
Browse all compliments & insults →
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