Se la couler douce
Meaning: To take life very easy indeed.
Language: French
Literally: To let it flow gently for oneself
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The image is of letting things run without applying any effort of one's own. It carries a definite note of disapproval from whoever is saying it.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Des mesures draconiennes — Punishingly severe rules.
- Péter une durite — To lose one's temper completely.
- À l'eau de rose — Insipidly sentimental, especially of fiction.
- L'échapper belle — To have a narrow escape.
- Faire l'école buissonnière — To play truant.
- Ne pas tarir d'éloges — To praise someone endlessly.
More French idioms
- Qui trop embrasse mal étreint — Attempting too many things at once means doing none of them properly.
- Une éminence grise — The unofficial power behind a public figure.
- À l'emporte-pièce — Trenchant and uncompromising, of a remark or judgment.
- Un enfant de la balle — Someone raised in the trade they now practice.
- L'enfer est pavé de bonnes intentions — Meaning well counts for nothing without acting well.
- Envers et contre tous — In defiance of universal opposition.
From our false friends
- Blesser — Actually means 'to wound' or 'to injure'. Je suis blessé = I am injured — not blessed.
- Location — Actually means 'rental'. Une location de voiture = a car rental. For location (place), sa…
- Assister — Actually means 'to attend' an event. J'assiste à la réunion = I attend the meeting. For a…
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