IdiomFood & Drink
French
FrenchTenir la dragée haute à quelqu'un
Meaning: To keep someone waiting before granting what they ask, so they feel the power you hold over them.
Literally: To hold the sugared almond high
Example: “Le joueur vedette tient la dragée haute au club pour son nouveau contrat.” — The star player is making the club wait and sweat over his new contract.
Origin: An 18th-century expression with two competing accounts: a children's game in which a sweet dangled on a thread was raised out of reach at the holder's whim, or horse training, where the dragée — a prized green fodder of wheat and buckwheat — was set high in the rack and doled out sparingly to curb the animal's greed.
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