Savoir où le bât blesse
Meaning: To know exactly where the real difficulty or sore point lies.
Language: French
Literally: To know where the packsaddle chafes
Category: Animals
Origin: The bât is the wooden packsaddle strapped to a donkey or mule. A badly fitted one rubs the animal raw in one particular spot, and only someone who knows where can relieve it.
More idioms — Animals
- Faire un bœuf — To improvise music together; to hold a jam session.
- Rire comme un bossu — To laugh helplessly and without restraint.
- Rabattre le caquet à quelqu'un — To shut someone up; to take an insolent person down a peg.
- Caracoler en tête — To lead by a wide margin, especially in a race or in polls.
- Muet comme une carpe — Completely silent; saying absolutely nothing.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
More French idioms
- Compter pour du beurre — To count for nothing; to be disregarded.
- Mettre du beurre dans les épinards — To improve one's financial situation; to make life a bit more comfortable.
- Beurré comme un p'tit Lu — Thoroughly drunk.
- Un compte d'apothicaire — A needlessly complicated calculation, usually one padded in the biller's favor.
- Tailler une bavette — To have a long, friendly chat.
- Une auberge espagnole — A place or discussion in which you find only what you yourself brought to it.
From our proverbs
- A stick in a bundle cannot be broken — Unity provides strength; individual elements easily fractured become resilient when bound…
- A trouble shared is a trouble halved — Confiding your burdens in others reduces their emotional weight through mutual support.
- A woman's work is never done — From rise of morn to set of sun Woman's work is never done.
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