S'en laver les mains
Meaning: To disclaim all responsibility for an outcome.
Language: French
Literally: To wash one's hands of it
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From Pilate washing his hands before the crowd in Matthew's gospel. The gesture in the text is a claim of innocence, and the phrase has kept the suspicion that it does not work.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Tout le saint-frusquin — The whole lot; everything one owns.
- Manu militari — By force; with physical compulsion.
- Faire le matamore — To swagger and bluster without the courage to back it up.
- Vendre la mèche — To give away a secret or a plan.
- Le revers de la médaille — The unwelcome other side of something good.
- À beau mentir qui vient de loin — Travellers' tales cannot be checked, so they are told without restraint.
More French idioms
- Des yeux de merlan frit — A soppy, languishing look.
- Payer en monnaie de singe — To pay with worthless promises instead of money.
- La montagne accouche d'une souris — A vast effort or grand announcement produces something trivial.
- La mouche du coche — Someone who bustles importantly while contributing nothing.
- On n'attrape pas les mouches avec du vinaigre — Gentleness achieves what harshness cannot.
- Prendre la mouche — To take sudden and disproportionate offense.
From our proverbs
- Crafty evasions save not the truth. — Clever dodging and indirect answers ultimately fail to conceal what is genuinely real.
- To a crazy ship all winds are contrary. — A disoriented mind finds obstacles everywhere, even when circumstances remain favorable.
- The worst wheel of a cart creaks most. — The most damaged or weakest part of any system draws attention and creates problems dispr…
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