Une cour des miracles
Meaning: A squalid, lawless place.
Language: French
Literally: A court of miracles
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The Cours des miracles were Paris slums where professional beggars lived. The name came from the nightly miracle by which the blind saw and the lame walked as soon as they were home and out of costume.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Affirmer mordicus — To insist on something absolutely and refuse to be moved.
- Être dans les bras de Morphée — To be fast asleep.
- Prendre au mot — To hold someone to exactly what they said.
- Un moulin à paroles — Someone who talks incessantly.
- Sainte Nitouche — A woman who feigns innocence she does not have.
- Le nerf de la guerre — Money, as the thing without which nothing can be done.
More French idioms
- Convoler en justes noces — To get married.
- Trancher le nœud gordien — To solve an intractable problem by refusing its terms.
- Chercher des noises — To pick a quarrel deliberately.
- Être en odeur de sainteté — To be in favor with someone in authority.
- Œil pour œil, dent pour dent / La loi du talion — Retaliation exactly proportionate to the injury.
- Tuer dans l'œuf — To stop something before it can develop.
From our compliments & insults
- C'est une vraie chèvre — They're hopelessly stubborn and infuriating — a goat that refuses to be moved.
- Casse-pieds — A massive bore or pain in the neck — someone who wears you down with their irritating way…
- Espèce de patate — You dim bulb — a potato being the very picture of inert, unthinking stodginess.
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