Un compte d'apothicaire
Meaning: A needlessly complicated calculation, usually one padded in the biller's favor.
Language: French
Literally: An apothecary's bill
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: Apothecaries were notorious for itemized accounts nobody could check, listing costly ingredients in quantities impossible to verify. Molière mocks the practice in Le Malade imaginaire, whose opening scene is Argan auditing exactly such a bill.
More idioms — Food & Drink
- Tailler une bavette — To have a long, friendly chat.
- Une auberge espagnole — A place or discussion in which you find only what you yourself brought to it.
- La caque sent toujours le hareng — However far you rise, low origins always show through.
- 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.
More French idioms
- Ne pas être dans son assiette — To feel out of sorts, physically or mentally off-form.
- Se défendre bec et ongles — To fight back with everything you have.
- Connaître bibliquement — To have had sex with someone.
- Se faire de la bile — To worry oneself sick.
- Dans le plus simple appareil — Stark naked.
- L'arbre qui cache la forêt — A conspicuous detail that distracts attention from the larger reality behind it.
From our compliments & insults
- Peau de vache — A mean, difficult, and unpleasant person — tough and unyielding like tanned hide.
- Tu as une cervelle de moineau — You're scatterbrained and forgetful.
- Tu es mon rayon de soleil — A warm way to tell someone they brighten your day.
Browse all compliments & insults →
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