Secouer comme un prunier
Meaning: To shake someone violently.
Language: French
Literally: To shake like a plum tree
Category: Animals
Origin: Plums are harvested by shaking the tree hard enough that the fruit falls, which is a specific and unignorable amount of force. The phrase is used of people being told off as much as of literal shaking.
More idioms — Animals
- 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.
- Les vaches maigres — A period of hardship and scarcity — the opposite of les vaches grasses.
- Les vaches grasses — A period of plenty.
- Aller comme un tablier à une vache — To suit someone appallingly badly.
- Adorer le veau d'or — To make money one's god.
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 proverbs
- Tis a hard battle where none escapes. — In conflicts where everyone suffers losses, victory itself becomes meaningless and costly.
- He that throws away his estate with his hands, goes afterwards to pick it upon his feet. — Careless squandering forces you into degrading labor to recover what you carelessly destr…
- He that knows himself best, esteems himself least. — Self-awareness diminishes arrogance; intimate knowledge of our flaws humbles our self-reg…
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