S'attirer les foudres de quelqu'un
Meaning: To bring down someone's wrath on oneself.
Language: French
Literally: To draw someone's thunderbolts
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The thunderbolts are Jupiter's, the standard classical instrument of divine displeasure. Using them of a manager or a ministry is deliberately outsized.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Ne pas pouvoir être au four et au moulin — To be unable to be in two places at once.
- Épater la galerie — To show off for the benefit of onlookers.
- Sans crier gare — Without any warning at all.
- Une promesse de Gascon — A promise nobody expects to be kept.
- Vouer aux gémonies — To denounce someone publicly and utterly.
- Cousin germain — A first cousin.
More French idioms
- Faire partie du Gotha — To belong to the highest society.
- Des goûts et des couleurs on ne discute pas — There is no arguing with personal preference.
- Mettre le grappin sur quelque chose — To get one's hooks into something and not let go.
- De gré ou de force — Willingly or unwillingly; one way or another.
- Le Grenelle de quelque chose — A large multi-party negotiation convened to settle a national issue.
- L'habit ne fait pas le moine — Appearances do not establish what someone is.
From our compliments & insults
- Bête comme ses pieds — Really not very bright.
- Avoir un poil dans la main — To be incurably lazy.
- Tête de linotte — A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
Browse all compliments & insults →
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