IdiomDaily Life
French
FrenchTomber comme un couperet
Meaning: To land suddenly and irrevocably, as of bad news.
Literally: To fall like a cleaver
Example: “La nouvelle de la fermeture de l'usine est tombée comme un couperet.” — The news that the factory was closing came like a bolt from the blue.
English equivalent: Like a bolt from the blue
Equivalents in other languages
English: like a bolt from the blue
Origin: The couperet is the guillotine blade, and what the phrase borrows is not the violence but the finality — once it drops there is no stage at which anything can be reconsidered.
More French idioms
- Tant va la cruche à l'eau qu'à la fin elle se casse Repeated risk-taking eventually catches up with you.
- Porter la culotte To be the one who makes the decisions in a household.
- N'en avoir cure To be entirely indifferent to something.
- Virer sa cuti To undergo a complete change of convictions.
- Au grand dam de quelqu'un To someone's considerable detriment or annoyance.
- Trouver son chemin de Damas To undergo a sudden and total conversion.
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- C'est une vraie chèvre They're hopelessly stubborn and infuriating — a goat that refuses to be moved.
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- Espèce de patate You dim bulb — a potato being the very picture of inert, unthinking stodginess.
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