Traîner une casserole
Meaning: To be trailed by a past scandal that others keep bringing up.
Language: French
Literally: To drag a saucepan behind you
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: From the old cruelty of tying tin pans to a dog's tail: the animal bolts in a panic and the racket announces it to the entire street. A discreditable episode behaves the same way — it follows the person, it is loud, and other people make certain it is heard at the least convenient moment. The expression is heavily used in French politics, where rattling an opponent's pan at election time is more or less the job. Attested in 1902.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- 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.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Raconter des salades — To tell lies or tall tales.
- En faire tout un fromage — To make a big deal out of nothing.
- Mettre son grain de sel — To give an unsolicited opinion.
More French idioms
- Avaler des couleuvres — To put up with insults or humiliations without being able to protest; also, to swallow an…
- Comme un coq en pâte — Thoroughly pampered; living in complete comfort.
- S'en battre l'œil / S'en tamponner le coquillard — To not care in the slightest.
- C'est dans mes cordes — It is within my competence; I can handle that.
- Filer un mauvais coton — To be going downhill — in health, or in one's situation generally.
- Tirer son coup — For a man, to have an orgasm. Vulgar.
From our untranslatable words
- L'esprit de l'escalier — Thinking of the perfect comeback only after the moment has passed — on your way down the…
- Terroir — The unique character that a place — its soil, climate and tradition — gives to a wine or…
- Râler — To complain and grumble with a certain national flair — a beloved French pastime.
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