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Sans queue ni tête

Meaning: Making no sense at all.

Language: French

Literally: Without tail or head

Category: Daily Life

Origin: Something with neither end has no shape to grasp and no order to follow. English says neither head nor tail, having reversed the pair.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • Être sur le qui-vive — To be tensely alert.
  • En rade — Stranded; left behind.
  • Faire du ramdam — To make a great deal of noise.
  • Un remède de bonne femme — A folk cure of doubtful value.
  • Tirer sa révérence — To take one's leave, with a show of formality.
  • À tour de rôle — Each in turn.

More French idioms

  • Un rond-de-cuir — A petty bureaucrat.
  • Au bout du rouleau — Completely exhausted; at the end of one's resources.
  • Hommes de sac et de corde — Thorough scoundrels.
  • L'affaire est dans le sac — It is as good as settled.
  • Mettre à sac — To plunder a place completely.
  • À bon entendeur, salut — A word to the wise — take the hint.

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'.

Browse all tongue twisters →

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