Un lit de Procuste
Meaning: A standard imposed regardless of what it does to the thing being measured.
Language: French
Literally: A bed of Procrustes
Category: The Absurd
Origin: Procrustes offered travellers a bed and made them fit it, stretching the short and cutting down the tall. Theseus killed him by the same method, which is the part usually left out.
More idioms — The Absurd
- Le rocher de Sisyphe — A labor that must be repeated forever and never completes.
- Le supplice de Tantale — Having what one wants permanently in sight and permanently out of reach.
- Une solution de continuité — A break or gap — not, despite appearances, a solution to anything.
- Demain, on rase gratis — A promise perpetually postponed.
- À vos souhaits — Bless you — said when someone sneezes.
- Une vérité de La Palice / Une lapalissade — A statement so obvious it is comic — a truism.
More French idioms
- Pierre qui roule n'amasse pas mousse — Constant movement prevents anything from accumulating.
- Les petits ruisseaux font les grandes rivières — Small contributions accumulate into something substantial.
- Un soleil de plomb — A crushing, oppressive heat.
- Une planche de salut — A last resort; the only remaining hope.
- Sentir le sapin — To be close to death.
- Mettre à pied — To suspend someone from their duties.
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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