“Have a free hand”in other languages
Be free to act as you think best.
English
French
Portuguese
EnglishFrenchPortugueseSame idea, different pictures
English frees the hand and French the elbows: avoir les coudées franches, to have room to move your arms without bumping anyone. A coudée was an old measure, the length of a forearm.
Portuguese hands over a blank sheet, carta branca, signed in advance for the other person to fill in. English borrowed the French version: carte blanche.
More sayings in other languages
- Have a lot on one's plate
- Have a nerve
- Have had it up to here
- Have one's back to the wall
- Have one's head in the clouds
- Hit the nail on the head
- Hold one's tongue
- Holy cow!
- The morning after the night before