Passer à la casserole
Meaning: To be killed; to be put through something thoroughly unpleasant; or, said of a woman, to be pressured into submitting to sex.
Language: French
Literally: To go into the saucepan
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Early 20th century, and it has shed senses since — it once also covered a harsh purgative, and the old treatment for venereal disease in which mercury was heated in a pan so the patient could breathe the fumes. The core is the verb: since Molière, y passer means either to suffer something or simply to die, and poultry is killed before it goes anywhere near a pan, so the cooking vessel reads as the end of the line. French slang kept the suffering and dropped the cooking — a crook caught in the act is as cuit (cooked, meaning done for) as the missionary in the cannibal's pot. The third sense arrives by a cruder route: a pan is what you sauter (sauté, but in slang also to have sex with) things in.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Traîner une casserole — To be trailed by a past scandal that others keep bringing up.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Raconter des salades — To tell lies or tall tales.
- En faire tout un fromage — To make a big deal out of nothing.
More French idioms
- Avaler des couleuvres — To put up with insults or humiliations without being able to protest; also, to swallow an…
- Comme un coq en pâte — Thoroughly pampered; living in complete comfort.
- S'en battre l'œil / S'en tamponner le coquillard — To not care in the slightest.
- C'est dans mes cordes — It is within my competence; I can handle that.
- Filer un mauvais coton — To be going downhill — in health, or in one's situation generally.
- Tirer son coup — For a man, to have an orgasm. Vulgar.
From our false friends
- Rester — Actually means 'to stay' or 'to remain'. Je reste ici = I'm staying here — not taking a n…
- Attendre — Actually means 'to wait for'. J'attends le bus = I'm waiting for the bus. For attend an e…
- Actuel — Actually means 'current' or 'present-day'. Actuellement = currently — not 'actually'.
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