S'envoyer en l'air
Meaning: To have sex.
Language: French
Literally: To send oneself into the air
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Early 20th-century slang, recorded by Jean Lacassagne and Pierre Devaux in L'Argot du milieu. It draws on the long-standing association between sexual ecstasy and rising into the sky — the same image behind monter au septième ciel, to go up to the seventh heaven.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Sacrifier à Vénus — To have sex.
- La langue de bois — Rigid, evasive doublespeak — language cut off from reality that carries a deliberately ri…
- Ne pas être dans son assiette — To feel out of sorts, physically or mentally off-form.
- Se défendre bec et ongles — To fight back with everything you have.
- Connaître bibliquement — To have had sex with someone.
- Se faire de la bile — To worry oneself sick.
More French idioms
- Sentir le fagot — To reek of heresy; more broadly, to arouse suspicion or invite condemnation.
- Faire ses ablutions — To wash oneself; to do one's daily toilet.
- Bouché à l'émeri — Dense, obtuse, narrow-minded; incapable of understanding.
- Griller un feu — To drive through a traffic light that is red.
- Éclairer la lanterne de quelqu'un — To supply the missing detail that lets someone finally understand.
- Outre mesure — Excessively, unreasonably, to an unwarranted degree.
From our proverbs
- Character is what you do when no one is watching — True virtue is shown not in public performances but in private actions when there are no…
- The shortest answer is doing the thing itself — Action is more effective than deliberation; the most direct response to a challenge is to…
- Nothing is impossible to a willing heart — With true determination and commitment, any obstacle can be overcome.
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