French Idioms and Proverbs / A Companion to Deshumbert's "Dictionary of Difficulties"

by de V. Payen-Payne

Cruche

C’est une vraie cruche (fam.) = She is a silly goose.

Cuir

Pester entre cuir et chair (fam.) = To fume inwardly.

Faire des cuirs = To drop one’s h’s.

[Really these are faults made by uneducated French people in pronunciation, consisting in sounding s for t, or vice versa, when running their words together or in pronouncing these letters when they do not occur, as: ils étaient zici, for ils étaient ici.]

Cuirasse

Les observations glissent sur lui comme sur une cuirasse = Blame slips off him as water off a duck’s back.

Cuire