mettre ses deux mains au feu
Meaning: To stake one's reputation or safety by guaranteeing something is true.
Language: French
Literally: to put both hands in the fire
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: The medieval ordeal behind this was a real judicial procedure. Guilt was settled by ordalie (trial by ordeal), and one form was trial by combat, on the reasoning that God would not let the guilty party win — so the loser was never merely the weaker man, he was the culprit. The ordeal of fire worked the same way: the accused either gripped an iron bar heated red, or put a hand into a metal glove heated the same way, and was watched afterward. If the hand healed within three days, divine intervention had spoken and he was innocent. Offering to put your hand in the fire meant staking everything on being right. The offer survives because the stakes do not — nobody now expects to be taken up on it, however wrong they turn out to be.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- tendre les bras — To offer help and support to someone, or to welcome them warmly.
- compter sur les doigts d’une main — To be so few in number that they can be counted on five fingers or fewer.
- tirer l’oreille — To scold or reprimand someone.
- tirer les oreilles — To scold someone harshly or punish them.
- ne plus savoir où donner de la tête — To be overwhelmed with work or demands.
- avoir les yeux qui sortent de la tête — To stare with eyes wide open in anger or astonishment.
More French idioms
- retourner à la case départ — To find oneself back where one began, as if no progress had been made.
- sentir la naphtaline — To be old-fashioned or antiquated.
- passer maître — To become the foremost expert in something.
- plumer la poule sans la faire crier — To extract money or advantage from someone so skillfully that they do not complain or res…
- faire fureur — To provoke great enthusiasm or widespread popularity.
- pousser les feux — To intensify effort or energy; to redouble one's exertions to achieve a goal.
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