Prendre au mot
Meaning: To hold someone to exactly what they said.
Language: French
Literally: To take at the word
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The point is usually that the speaker did not mean it literally and is now stuck with it. It is a small act of aggression disguised as agreement.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Un moulin à paroles — Someone who talks incessantly.
- Sainte Nitouche — A woman who feigns innocence she does not have.
- Le nerf de la guerre — Money, as the thing without which nothing can be done.
- Convoler en justes noces — To get married.
- Trancher le nœud gordien — To solve an intractable problem by refusing its terms.
- Chercher des noises — To pick a quarrel deliberately.
More French idioms
- Être en odeur de sainteté — To be in favor with someone in authority.
- Œil pour œil, dent pour dent / La loi du talion — Retaliation exactly proportionate to the injury.
- Tuer dans l'œuf — To stop something before it can develop.
- À pied d'œuvre — On site and ready to begin.
- S'occuper de ses oignons — To mind one's own business.
- Pousser des cris d'orfraie — To protest with theatrical outrage.
From our tongue twisters
- Seize chaises sèches sur seize arches sèches. — A relentless collision of 'sei', 'sèch', and 's' — the tongue can't find traction.
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. — A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
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