Vaincre le signe indien
Meaning: To break a run of bad luck.
Language: French
Literally: To defeat the Indian sign
Category: Daily Life
Origin: A straight translation of American English indian sign, which reached French from the Far West of the popular imagination. The belief attached to it was that a shaman could curse an enemy by marking his forehead, in the mind's eye, with a picture of whatever calamity was intended for him, and that only the pure of heart and conspicuously brave had any hope of shrugging it off — a qualification that will have thinned the field considerably. Anyone carrying such a mark had no further need of ladders to walk under or mirrors to break; the work was already done. To beat the Indian sign is therefore to come out the far side of a long, unbroken run of disasters into a stretch where things simply go right, which is rarer and more suspicious than it sounds.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Faire un tabac — To be a huge success.
- Passer à tabac — To be given a severe beating, especially in police custody.
- Pédaler dans la semoule — To be confused and getting nowhere.
- Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter — To have more important things to do.
- Avoir le cul entre deux chaises — To be indecisive, caught between two options.
- Les carottes sont cuites — It's too late, nothing can be done.
More French idioms
- Un coup de tabac — A sudden violent squall at sea; by extension, a brutal turn of events.
- Ça ne casse pas trois pattes à un canard — It's nothing special or impressive.
- C'est comme pisser dans un violon — A completely pointless effort.
- Avoir le cafard — To feel depressed or down.
- Poser un lapin — To stand someone up on a date.
- Tomber dans les pommes — Suddenly losing consciousness — possibly derived from the older expression 'être dans les…
From our proverbs
- A hungry horse makes a clean manger. — A desperate situation compels thorough action where comfort permits negligence.
- A hungry man, an angry man. — Physical deprivation erodes patience and civility, making irritability inevitable.
- Hungry men think the cook lazy. — Impatient people blame external circumstances rather than acknowledging their own unreali…
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