FrenchRecoller les morceaux
Meaning: to repair a broken relationship or reconcile after a quarrel.
Literally: To glue the pieces back together
Example: “Après des années de silence, les deux frères essaient de recoller les morceaux.” — After years of silence, the two brothers are trying to mend fences.
English equivalent: To mend fences
Equivalents in other languages
English: mend fences
Origin: The picture is of a broken dish or vase glued back together: it can be used again, but the cracks still show. The figurative use for making up after a breakup or a quarrel has no particular story behind it, and no recorded date: neither Littré nor the Académie française's dictionaries of 1694 to 1932 list it, and Wiktionnaire marks its date as unknown.
More French idioms
- Ne s’être pas regardé to judge others harshly while being blind to one's own equal or greater faults.
- Ne pas tourner rond to be unwell or not functioning properly.
- Prendre le maquis To go into hiding or join a resistance movement to escape authority or persecution.
- Ne pas en croire ses oreilles To be startled or disbelieving upon hearing something astonishing.
- Se composer le visage To adopt a serious or carefully studied expression suited to the circumstances.
- Être de mauvais poil To be in a bad mood or irritable disposition.
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