Un homme de paille
Meaning: A front man acting for someone who stays hidden.
Language: French
Literally: A man of straw
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A straw man is stuffed and hollow, holding a shape without substance. The legal and financial sense is the dominant one in French.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Envoyer paître — To tell someone to get lost.
- La boîte de Pandore — Something that releases a host of troubles once opened.
- Le dessus du panier — The pick of the crop; the best of a group.
- Un panier percé — Someone incapable of holding on to money.
- Le parcours du combattant — A gruelling series of obstacles.
- La flèche du Parthe — A wounding remark delivered while leaving.
More French idioms
- Graisser la patte — To bribe someone.
- Le haut du pavé — The most privileged position in society.
- Mettre pavillon bas — To admit defeat.
- Dire pis que pendre de quelqu'un — To speak extremely ill of someone.
- Remettre les pendules à l'heure — To set the record straight and restore order.
- Ce n'est pas le Pérou — It is not a fortune; it is nothing to get excited about.
From our tongue twisters
- Un beau ver vert dans un verre vert verra un ver vert. — Ver (worm), vert (green), and verre (glass) are near-homophones — distinguishing them at…
- Didon dîna, dit-on, du dos d'un dodu dindon dont le dodu dos dodine. — A 'd' / 'din' / 'dod' avalanche that seems designed to jam the tongue in third gear.
- Un chasseur sachant chasser doit savoir chasser sans son chien. — The classic French 'ch' / 's' tangler.
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