Home › Idioms

S'inscrire en faux

Meaning: To formally deny something and challenge its truth.

Language: French

Literally: To register as false

Category: Daily Life

Origin: A procedure in French law for contesting the authenticity of a document presented in evidence. Ordinary usage keeps the formality — one does not s'inscrire en faux casually.

More idioms — Daily Life

  • Cherchez la femme — There is a woman behind this somewhere.
  • Jeter l'argent par les fenêtres — To spend recklessly and pointlessly.
  • Croire dur comme fer — To believe something with complete and unshakeable conviction.
  • Le fer de lance — The leading element of an effort; the part that goes in first.
  • Avoir le feu sacré — To be driven by genuine, burning vocation.
  • Être tout feu tout flamme — To be full of ardent enthusiasm.

More French idioms

  • Faire fi de quelque chose — To scorn something; to dismiss it as beneath notice.
  • Des grosses ficelles — Crude, obvious tricks that fool nobody.
  • Cousu de fil blanc — So obvious that the deception is plainly visible.
  • Mettre le doigt dans l'engrenage — To take a first small step that drags you into something far larger.
  • Le dos au feu et le ventre à table — In a state of complete physical contentment.
  • Marquer à la culotte — To watch someone so closely they cannot move freely.

From our proverbs

  • Burn not your candle at both ends at once. — Depleting your resources simultaneously from opposite directions ensures swift exhaustion…
  • On Candlemas day throw candle and candle-stick away. — After winter's darkest stretch passes, discard what sustained you through scarcity; abund…
  • If the cap fit, wear it. — Accept criticism directed at you rather than deflecting or denying uncomfortable truths a…

Browse all proverbs →

← Back to Idioms

Explore more: Proverbs Compliments & Insults False Friends Untranslatable Words Tongue Twisters

Loading the full interactive collection…