Nager entre deux eaux
Meaning: To avoid committing to either side.
Language: French
Literally: To swim between two waters
Category: Nature
Origin: A swimmer submerged between the surface and the bottom is visible from neither. The phrase is pejorative and implies calculation rather than indecision.
More idioms — Nature
- Une coupe sombre — A drastic reduction, especially of staff or budget.
- Nettoyer les écuries d'Augias — To clear up a vast accumulated mess, usually of corruption.
- Veiller au grain — To stay alert for trouble.
- Tomber des hallebardes — To rain extremely hard.
- L'été indien — A spell of unseasonably warm weather in autumn.
- La partie émergée de l'iceberg — The small visible portion of a much larger problem.
More French idioms
- Aux quatre coins de — All over; in every part of a place.
- Frappé au coin du bon sens — Manifestly sensible; bearing the stamp of sound judgment.
- Collet monté — Prim, stiff and old-fashioned in manner.
- Dans le collimateur — In someone's sights; singled out for scrutiny.
- Le complexe d'Œdipe — A child's unconscious attachment to the opposite-sex parent and rivalry with the other.
- De conserve — Together, in company — not to be confused with de concert.
From our proverbs
- Bear with evil and expect good. — Enduring hardship with patience and moral steadiness attracts positive outcomes and rewar…
- Tis easy to find a staff to beat a dog. — Finding excuses to punish someone you already dislike requires no effort or genuine justi…
- Better to be beaten than be in bad company. — Physical hardship endures briefly; corrupting influences from vice seep into character pe…
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