Tomber en quenouille
Meaning: To decline into neglect; to fall apart through mismanagement.
Language: French
Literally: To fall to the distaff
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The quenouille is the distaff, the emblem of women's work, and an estate falling en quenouille was one passing to a female heir where the law preferred a male one. The modern sense of decay is what remains of a frankly misogynistic original.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Sans queue ni tête — Making no sense at all.
- Être sur le qui-vive — To be tensely alert.
- En rade — Stranded; left behind.
- Faire du ramdam — To make a great deal of noise.
- Un remède de bonne femme — A folk cure of doubtful value.
- Tirer sa révérence — To take one's leave, with a show of formality.
More French idioms
- À tour de rôle — Each in turn.
- Un rond-de-cuir — A petty bureaucrat.
- Au bout du rouleau — Completely exhausted; at the end of one's resources.
- Hommes de sac et de corde — Thorough scoundrels.
- L'affaire est dans le sac — It is as good as settled.
- Mettre à sac — To plunder a place completely.
From our untranslatable words
- Épanouissement — The full flourishing of a person — blooming into your most complete, radiant self. More t…
- Ressourcement — The act of returning to one's roots or origins to find renewal — going back to a place, t…
- Dépaysement — The disorienting yet often pleasant feeling of being far from home, immersed in the unfam…
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