Je l’ai saisi à bras le corps = I seized him round the waist (in a struggle).
Je l’ai battu à tour de bras (or, à bras raccourci) = I beat him with all my might.
Pourquoi restez-vous là les bras croisés? = Why are you waiting there doing nothing?
J’ai ses enfants sur les bras = I have his children on my hands.
*A brebis tondue Dieu mesure le vent = God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
[Also: Dieu donne le froid selon le drap. This is said to occur first in a collection of proverbs made by Henri Estienne (Stephanus), 1594. The earliest mention in English is, I believe, in Sterne’s Sentimental Journey.]
*Qui se fait brebis, le loup le mange = He who is too confiding is imposed upon; Daub yourself with honey and you’ll be covered with flies.
*Brebis comptées le loup les mange = Counting one’s chickens will not keep the fox off; If you count your chickens, harm will happen to them.
[Compare Vergil, Ecl., vii. 52. This somewhat difficult expression can also be translated: “A bold thief is not frightened at things being counted.” It no doubt refers to the old superstition that counting one’s possessions was followed by misfortune, as in 2 Samuel xxiv.]