se battre contre les moulins à vent
Meaning: Fighting a hopeless battle against something immovable or pointless.
Language: French
Literally: to fight against windmills
Category: The Absurd
Origin: Reference to Don Quixote's famous misadventure tilting at windmills.
More idioms — The Absurd
- prendre ses rêves pour des réalités — Confusing fantasy with reality; living in delusion.
- tirer les vers du nez — Getting someone to reveal information they want to keep secret.
- faire un bide — Experiencing complete failure or lack of success.
- faire un couac — Making an embarrassing mistake or producing a discordant sound.
- estar en la luna de Valencia — Completely distracted or absent-minded, oblivious to what's happening around you.
- avere la coda di paglia — Feel guilty about something because you're afraid of being discovered or criticized.
More French idioms
- faire ses choux gras — Profiting greatly from a situation at someone else's expense.
- avoir un tuyau — Having inside information or a useful tip about something.
- être à court de — Lacking or running low on something essential.
- avoir un bleu — Having a bruise on the skin from impact or injury.
- faire la pluie et le beau temps — Having complete control over a situation or someone's fate.
- avoir une dent contre quelqu'un — Holding a grudge or resentment toward someone.
From our tongue twisters
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- 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.