Tirer au flanc / Tirer au cul
Meaning: To dodge work; to shirk.
Language: French
Literally: To pull toward the flank / toward the backside
Category: Daily Life
Origin: Military, from the end of the 19th century. An army in battle order has a front, where the heroism and the dying happen, and it has flanks — the term in this sense since the 16th century — which are generally quieter and much the better place to be if you would rather not die stupidly for a cause larger than yourself. A man at the front who drifted toward the flank on some pressing errand was understood to be avoiding the worst of the risk, and his comrades thought little of him for it. From there the tire-au-flanc is anyone who slides quietly sideways out of an unpleasant job, and the sense spread far beyond the army. Tirer au cul is the coarser version, dodging toward the rear rather than the side. The verb is not about firing a weapon: it is se tirer, to take oneself off, and tirer had long meant to head toward — Molière uses it that way in L'Étourdi.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Avoir le cul entre deux chaises — To be indecisive, caught between two options.
- Les carottes sont cuites — It's too late, nothing can be done.
- Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof — I don't understand anything at all.
- Schwein haben — Getting unexpectedly lucky — rooted in medieval tournaments where the last-place finisher…
More French idioms
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
- 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.
From our compliments & insults
- C'est une vraie chèvre — They're hopelessly stubborn and infuriating — a goat that refuses to be moved.
- Casse-pieds — A massive bore or pain in the neck — someone who wears you down with their irritating way…
- Espèce de patate — You dim bulb — a potato being the very picture of inert, unthinking stodginess.
Browse all compliments & insults →
Loading the full interactive collection…