Ruer dans les brancards
Meaning: To rebel against constraint or authority.
Language: French
Literally: To kick in the shafts
Category: Animals
Origin: The brancards are the two shafts a draft horse is harnessed between. A horse that kicks against them is fighting the very apparatus that directs it, which is exactly the image wanted for insubordination.
More idioms — Animals
- À bride abattue — At full tilt, at breakneck speed.
- Vouloir faire passer un chameau par le chas d'une aiguille — To attempt something manifestly impossible.
- Acheter chat en poche — To buy something sight unseen, and be cheated.
- Il n'y a pas un chat — There is nobody around at all.
- À cheval donné on ne regarde pas les dents — Do not find fault with a gift.
- Monter sur ses grands chevaux — To take offense and react with indignant superiority.
More French idioms
- Un cheval de Troie — A gift or arrangement that conceals a hostile purpose.
- C'est le chien de Jean de Nivelle — Said of someone who makes himself scarce precisely when he is called.
- Les chiens ne font pas des chats — Children inevitably resemble their parents.
- Les chiens aboient et la caravane passe — Criticism from bystanders does not stop those who are getting on with it.
- Ne pas attacher son chien avec des saucisses — To be extremely tight-fisted.
- Un temps de chien — Filthy, miserable weather.
From our proverbs
- Rules are made to be broken — Breaking established rules often brings unforeseen consequences that outweigh the tempora…
- Scientia potentia est — Knowledge grants practical power to act effectively in the world, transforming understand…
- Set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil — Sudden wealth corrupts the unprepared, who squander newfound power on recklessness and vi…
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