Tailler une bavette
Meaning: To have a long, friendly chat.
Language: French
Literally: To cut a bib
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Not the cut of beef but bavette from baver, to dribble — by extension to talk freely. Tailler, to cut out cloth, gives the sense of shaping a conversation at leisure, the way one would cut out a bib.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Une auberge espagnole — A place or discussion in which you find only what you yourself brought to it.
- La caque sent toujours le hareng — However far you rise, low origins always show through.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
- Avoir la moutarde qui monte au nez — To be getting angry.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Raconter des salades — To tell lies or tall tales.
More French idioms
- 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.
- Dans le plus simple appareil — Stark naked.
- L'arbre qui cache la forêt — A conspicuous detail that distracts attention from the larger reality behind it.
From our false friends
- Pain — Actually means 'bread'. The hurting kind of pain is la douleur.
- Coin — Actually means 'corner'. A coin you spend is une pièce.
- Chance — Actually means 'luck'. Bonne chance! = Good luck! For chance (probability), say une possi…
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