Pendre la crémaillère
Meaning: To hold a housewarming.
Language: French
Literally: To hang the pot-hook
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The crémaillère was the notched iron bar in the hearth from which the cooking pot hung. It went up once the house was habitable, and the meal it made possible was the first the household could offer guests.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Riche comme Crésus — Enormously wealthy.
- La critique est aisée, mais l'art est difficile — Faulting a work costs nothing compared with making one.
- Tant va la cruche à l'eau qu'à la fin elle se casse — Repeated risk-taking eventually catches up with you.
- Porter la culotte — To be the one who makes the decisions in a household.
- N'en avoir cure — To be entirely indifferent to something.
- Virer sa cuti — To undergo a complete change of convictions.
More French idioms
- Au grand dam de quelqu'un — To someone's considerable detriment or annoyance.
- Trouver son chemin de Damas — To undergo a sudden and total conversion.
- Une épée de Damoclès — A disaster hanging over someone, liable to fall at any moment.
- Entretenir une danseuse — To maintain a costly indulgence that serves no purpose.
- À l'usage du Dauphin — Expurgated; censored for delicate sensibilities.
- Les dés sont pipés — The outcome is rigged in advance.
From our proverbs
- One beats the bush and another catcheth the bird. — One person's labor enables another's gain, rewarding the opportunist over the worker.
- The bird that can sing and will not sing, must be made to sing. — Talent unused is wasted potential; those capable of contributing must be compelled to ful…
- Even small birds must have meat. — The poorest among us require sustenance and dignity, not merely scraps or leftovers.
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