Mettre le doigt dans l'engrenage
Meaning: To take a first small step that drags you into something far larger.
Language: French
Literally: To put one's finger in the gears
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Once a finger is caught between two turning gears the mechanism pulls in the hand and then the arm. The warning is specifically about the first step being irreversible, not about the danger being obvious.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Le dos au feu et le ventre à table — In a state of complete physical contentment.
- Marquer à la culotte — To watch someone so closely they cannot move freely.
- Revoir sa copie — To go back and rework a proposal that has been rejected.
- De fil en aiguille — One thing leading to another.
- Un fil d'Ariane — A guiding thread through something impossibly complicated.
- En file indienne — In single file, one behind another.
More French idioms
- Ronger son frein — To wait in barely contained impatience.
- Jeter sa gourme — To sow one's wild oats.
- Tirer à hue et à dia — To pull in opposite directions; to work at cross purposes.
- Une grenouille de bénitier — A woman conspicuously and tiresomely devout.
- Faire le pied de grue — To stand around waiting for a long time.
- Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps — A single encouraging sign does not prove a trend.
From our proverbs
- An Englishman's house is his castle. — Privacy and personal autonomy within one's home deserve the same protection as fortified…
- The cat is hungry when a crust contents her. — Extreme hunger makes even the poorest sustenance—a mere crust—seem like a satisfying meal.
- The cat sees not the mouse ever. — A predator blinded by complacency allows its prey to escape unnoticed.
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