Vendre la mèche
Meaning: To give away a secret or a plan.
Language: French
Literally: To sell the fuse
Category: Daily Life
Origin: From military mining, where the mèche was the fuse to the powder charge: selling it to the enemy betrayed the whole operation. The earlier form was éventer la mèche, to expose the fuse to air and ruin it.
More idioms — Daily Life
- Le revers de la médaille — The unwelcome other side of something good.
- À beau mentir qui vient de loin — Travellers' tales cannot be checked, so they are told without restraint.
- Être à la merci de quelqu'un — To be entirely in someone's power.
- La huitième merveille du monde — Something extraordinary — usually said with irony.
- Paris vaut bien une messe — A principle is worth abandoning if the prize is large enough.
- Une messe basse — A whispered aside between two people in company.
More French idioms
- Je vous le donne en mille — You will never guess.
- Une cour des miracles — A squalid, lawless place.
- 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.
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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