Se faire des cheveux blancs
Meaning: To worry oneself sick.
Language: French
Literally: To make oneself white hairs
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: From the old belief that acute distress turns the hair white, occasionally reported of people after a shock. French keeps several variants of the same idea, including se faire du mauvais sang.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Haut les cœurs ! — Take courage; lift your spirits.
- Avoir les coudées franches — To have complete freedom of action.
- Battre sa coulpe — To publicly acknowledge one's own wrongdoing.
- Le petit doigt sur la couture du pantalon — Standing rigidly to attention; obeying without question.
- Ôter une épine du pied à quelqu'un — To relieve someone of a persistent difficulty.
- Un écorché vif — Someone painfully hypersensitive to everything around them.
More French idioms
- Aux calendes grecques — Never — used of something postponed indefinitely.
- Un cautère sur une jambe de bois — A remedy that is completely useless.
- Scier la branche sur laquelle on est assis — To destroy the thing your own position depends on.
- Tomber de Charybde en Scylla — To escape one danger only to meet a worse one.
- Proposer la botte à quelqu'un — To proposition someone sexually.
- Pousser le bouchon un peu loin — To go too far; to overstep.
From our compliments & insults
- Tu as une cervelle de moineau — You're scatterbrained and forgetful.
- Tu es mon rayon de soleil — A warm way to tell someone they brighten your day.
- Joli comme un cœur — Utterly charming or adorable.
Browse all compliments & insults →
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