Veiller au grain
Meaning: To stay alert for trouble.
Language: French
Literally: To watch for the squall
Category: Nature
Origin: Un grain at sea is a sudden squall, not a seed, and a lookout watched for the darkening water that announced one. The phrase is about anticipation rather than caution.
More idioms — Nature
- Tomber des hallebardes — To rain extremely hard.
- L'été indien — A spell of unseasonably warm weather in autumn.
- La partie émergée de l'iceberg — The small visible portion of a much larger problem.
- Faire flèche de tout bois — To use every available means to achieve an end.
- Blanchir sous le harnais — To grow old in a profession.
- Entre le marteau et l'enclume — Caught between two opposing forces with no way out.
More French idioms
- De fil en aiguille — One thing leading to another.
- Un fil d'Ariane — A guiding thread through something impossibly complicated.
- En file indienne — In single file, one behind another.
- La fin justifie les moyens — A worthwhile goal excuses whatever it takes to reach it.
- Conter fleurette — To woo someone with sweet talk.
- Des manœuvres florentines — Devious, elaborately indirect political scheming.
From our untranslatable words
- Épanouissement — The full flourishing of a person — blooming into your most complete, radiant self. More t…
- Ressourcement — The act of returning to one's roots or origins to find renewal — going back to a place, t…
- Dépaysement — The disorienting yet often pleasant feeling of being far from home, immersed in the unfam…
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