Passer sur le billard
Meaning: To undergo surgery.
Language: French
Literally: To go onto the billiard table
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Early 20th-century slang comparing the flat green operating table to a billiard table. The flippancy is deliberate, the phrase being a way of making an alarming prospect sound ordinary.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Se faire blackbouler — To be rejected, voted down or heavily defeated in an election.
- Une arme blanche — A bladed weapon, as opposed to a firearm.
- Blanchir de l'argent — To launder money.
- Au petit bonheur la chance — Haphazardly, leaving the outcome entirely to chance.
- Avoir la bosse de — To have a natural gift for something, as in avoir la bosse des maths.
- Aller à Canossa — To humble oneself completely before someone; to submit and beg forgiveness.
More French idioms
- Rabattre le caquet à quelqu'un — To shut someone up; to take an insolent person down a peg.
- Caracoler en tête — To lead by a wide margin, especially in a race or in polls.
- Muet comme une carpe — Completely silent; saying absolutely nothing.
- La caque sent toujours le hareng — However far you rise, low origins always show through.
- Parler à la cantonade — To speak to a group at large without addressing anyone in particular.
- Un capitaine d'industrie — The head of a large company.
From our false friends
- Monnaie — Actually means 'change' or 'coins'. Money in general is l'argent.
- Sensible — Actually means 'sensitive'. For sensible/level-headed, say raisonnable.
- Librairie — Actually means 'bookshop'. A library is une bibliothèque.
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