
Remettre en train
Meaning: To restart or reactivate something that has stopped or slowed down.
Literally: To put back in train
Example: “Un bon café l'a remis en train après la sieste.” — A good cup of coffee got him going again after his nap.
Origin: Train here has nothing to do with railways: long before trains existed, it meant movement, pace or progress, as in aller bon train (to go at a good pace). Mettre en train was to set something going, and Littré quotes Molière, Pascal and Madame de Sévigné using en train; in 1681 Sévigné wished a friend a lottery prize that would have put him back en train, in better spirits. To put something back en train is to restart it, or to revive someone's energy.
More French idioms
- Ça pique It is very expensive or causes financial pain.
- C'est la fin des haricots It's all over; there's no hope left.
- Le dindon de la farce The dupe — the victim of a trick who ends up everyone's laughingstock.
- Montrer patte blanche To produce the credentials needed to be let in somewhere.
- Tenir la dragée haute à quelqu'un To keep someone waiting before granting what they ask, so they feel the power you hold ov…
- Sucrer les fraises To have trembling hands; by extension, to be doddering.
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