IdiomAnimals
French
FrenchMonter sur ses grands chevaux
Meaning: To take offense and react with indignant superiority.
Literally: To get up on one's tall horses
Example: “Dès qu'on critique son équipe, il monte sur ses grands chevaux.” — As soon as anyone criticizes his team, he gets on his high horse.
English equivalent: To get on one's high horse
Equivalents in other languages
English: get off one's high horse
Origin: The grands chevaux were the destriers, the tall warhorses a knight mounted only for battle rather than for travel. Climbing onto one signaled that the rider had decided to treat the matter as a fight.
More French idioms
- Mettre les bouchées doubles To work twice as hard in order to catch up.
- La dive bouteille Wine, treated with mock reverence.
- Boire le calice jusqu'à la lie To endure an ordeal all the way to its most humiliating end.
- La cerise sur le gâteau A final touch that completes something already good — often said sarcastically of a last…
- Ni chair ni poisson Neither one thing nor the other; impossible to classify.
- Clouer le bec à quelqu'un To silence someone completely, usually with an unanswerable reply.
Explore another collection: Compliments & Insults
Compliments and insults from around the world, from the sweet to the savage.
- 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.
Keep exploring