Sans coup férir
Meaning: Without any resistance at all; effortlessly.
Language: French
Literally: Without striking a blow
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Férir is an archaic verb meaning to strike, from Latin ferire, surviving in modern French essentially only in this phrase and in sans coup férir's cousin, être féru de (to be keen on something). Its obsolescence is why the expression looks odd.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Un coup de fil — A telephone call.
- Tomber comme un couperet — To land suddenly and irrevocably, as of bad news.
- Faire la cour à quelqu'un — To court someone romantically.
- La cour des grands — The top tier, where the serious players are.
- Une fois n'est pas coutume — One exception does not establish a habit.
- Pendre la crémaillère — To hold a housewarming.
More French idioms
- 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.
From our tongue twisters
- 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.
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
- Les chaussettes de l'archiduchesse sont-elles sèches, archi-sèches? — A merciless duel between 'ch' and 's'.
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