FrenchTaper du poing sur la table
Meaning: To express strong disagreement or disapproval with a situation.
Literally: To bang one's fist on the table
Example: “Quand les retards se sont accumulés, la directrice a tapé du poing sur la table.” — When the delays kept piling up, the director put her foot down.
English equivalent: To put one's foot down
Other ways to say this
English: put one's foot down- French: Mettre le holà Literally: To put the holà
Origin: Bringing a fist down on the table makes a noise that stops a conversation and signals that the speaker has had enough and means to be heard. The older wording is donner du poing sur la table (to strike the table with one's fist), used for instance by André Gide in Les Caves du Vatican (1914); taper is the verb almost everyone uses today. It usually means asserting authority rather than simply losing one's temper.
More French idioms
- Recoller les morceaux to repair a broken relationship or reconcile after a quarrel.
- Brûler ses dernières cartouches to exhaust one's final resources or use one's last arguments in desperation.
- Ne pas tourner rond to be unwell or not functioning properly.
- Passer un mauvais quart d’heure to experience a brief but unpleasant or distressing moment.
- Envoyer des piques To make cutting or barbed remarks intended to irritate or provoke someone.
- Prendre le maquis To go into hiding or join a resistance movement to escape authority or persecution.
Explore another collection: Compliments & Insults
Compliments and insults from around the world, from the sweet to the savage.
- Bête comme ses pieds Really not very bright.
- Avoir un poil dans la main To be incurably lazy.
- Tête de linotte A scatterbrain who can't hold a thought.
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