Tenir 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.
Language: French
Literally: To hold the sugared almond high
Category: Food & Drink
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.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Sucrer les fraises — To have trembling hands; by extension, to be doddering.
- Compter pour du beurre — To count for nothing; to be disregarded.
- Mettre du beurre dans les épinards — To improve one's financial situation; to make life a bit more comfortable.
- Beurré comme un p'tit Lu — Thoroughly drunk.
- Un compte d'apothicaire — A needlessly complicated calculation, usually one padded in the biller's favor.
- Tailler une bavette — To have a long, friendly chat.
More French idioms
- Les Anglais ont débarqué — To have one's period.
- S'envoyer en l'air — To have sex.
- Sacrifier à Vénus — To have sex.
- La langue de bois — Rigid, evasive doublespeak — language cut off from reality that carries a deliberately ri…
- 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.
From our false friends
- Blesser — Actually means 'to wound' or 'to injure'. Je suis blessé = I am injured — not blessed.
- Location — Actually means 'rental'. Une location de voiture = a car rental. For location (place), sa…
- Assister — Actually means 'to attend' an event. J'assiste à la réunion = I attend the meeting. For a…
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