Se faire prendre pour un pigeon
Meaning: To be duped as an easy mark.
Language: French
Literally: To be taken for a pigeon
Category: Animals
Origin: The pigeon has stood for the gullible victim in French since the 16th century, on the reasoning that it comes when fed and is trivially easy to catch. English keeps the same idea in being a pigeon for something.
More idioms — Animals
- Avoir les portugaises ensablées — To be hard of hearing.
- Laid comme un pou — Extremely ugly.
- Le plancher des vaches — Dry land, as seen from the sea.
- Secouer comme un prunier — To shake someone violently.
- Le marchand de sable est passé — The children are getting sleepy.
- Prendre le taureau par les cornes — To tackle a difficulty head-on instead of avoiding it.
More French idioms
- Un pique-nique — A meal eaten outdoors to which everyone contributes.
- Cracher dans la soupe — To disparage the thing that sustains you.
- Trempé comme une soupe — Drenched to the skin.
- Payer rubis sur l'ongle — To pay in full, immediately and to the last penny.
- Faire avancer le schmilblick — To make actual progress on something.
- Avaler des poires d'angoisse — To endure something bitterly painful.
From our compliments & insults
- Quel râleur / quelle râleuse — You never stop moaning — everything is a complaint, nothing is ever good enough.
- Peau de vache — A mean, difficult, and unpleasant person — tough and unyielding like tanned hide.
- Tu as une cervelle de moineau — You're scatterbrained and forgetful.
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