Happy Boxing Day!

Boxing Day is a holiday traditionally celebrated the weekday or Saturday following Christmas Day, when servants and tradesmen would receive gifts, known as a "Christmas box", from their masters, employers or customers, in the United Kingdom. 

Today, Boxing Day is the bank holiday or public holiday that generally takes place on 26 or 27 December. (from Wikipedia)

The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest attestations of the term as being from England in the 1830s, defining it as 'the first week-day after Christmas-day, observed as a holiday on which post-men, errand-boys, and servants of various kinds expect to receive a Christmas-box'.

For hours on end

Four hours on end, for many hours. durant des heures

• We sat and waited in the emergency room for hours on end. 
• The children were happy to play video games for hours on end.

The final/last straw

The last straw (also the straw that breaks the camel's back). le coup de grâce, la goutte qui fait déborder le vase

• Losing my ​job was ​bad enough, but being ​evicted was the ​final straw.
• She's always been ​rude to me, but it was the last straw when she ​started ​insulting my ​mother.

To show off

He's showing off to impress her. frimer, se la pêter (très familier)

show [sth/sb] off (display proudly). montrer, exhiber, mettre en avant

• When his famous mother came to school, he showed her off to all his friends.

show [sth] off (draw attention to). mettre en valeur

• He bought a close-fitting shirt that showed off his newly developed muscles.

For my English speaking friends:

In French "alors heureuse" is a joke to mock men thinking that they are sooo irresistible that their presence is enough to make a woman happy ;=) 

Credit where credit is due

The use of the phrase credit where credit is due in an absolute sense (without a verb such as give, take or deserve) is far more common in UK English than US. The phrase is more likely to be used in the grudging sense in UK than US English.
Comment for my English speaking friends: a common expression to translate this idea in French is:"Rendons à César ce qui appartient à César"

• Credit where credit is due, he's a good player.
• We must give credit to our sponsors who helped pay for this new building.
• I'll give her credit for her beautiful handwriting, but the answers she gave in the test were all wrong!
• Give me credit - I worked all night to get the project finished!

to offer/hold out an olive branch

an offer of reconciliation.

According to the Biblical story, after the great flood, Noah sends out a dove to see if the waters have subsided. The dove returns with a fresh olive leaf in her beak and since then the dove became a symbol of peace.

• the government is holding out an olive branch to the demonstrators

to hear something through the grapevine

To hear news from someone who heard that news from someone else, to learn of something informally  by means of gossip and rumor. The information was passed person to person by word of mouth.

• I heard through the grapevine that she was pregnant, but I don'tknow anything more.

El Condor Pasa - lyrics

"El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" SIMON & GARFUNKEL
https://youtu.be/pey29CLID3I

Original version a melody from the Incas: 
https://youtu.be/i8eGnOM7YCg

I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Away, I'd rather sail away
Like a swan that's here and gone
A man gets tied up to the ground
He gives the world it's saddest sound
Its saddest sound

I'd rather be a forest than a street
Yes I would, if I could, I surely would
I'd rather feel the earth beneath my feet
Yes I would, if I only could, I surely would

Forewarned is forearmed

If you know about something beforehand, you can prepare for it, prior knowledge of possible dangers or problems gives one a tactical advantage. Un homme averti en vaut deux

To click with someone

to catch on with someone. - le courant est passé avec quelqu'un

1. [for something] to be understood or comprehended by someone suddenly. 

• His explanation clicked with Maggie at once. It rings the bell.

2. [for someone or something new] to catch on with someone; to become popular or friendly with someone very quickly.

• The new product clicked with consumers and was an instant success. 
• I clicked with Tom the moment I met him.

Fiery/feisty temper

Fiery personality, fiery temper: enthusiastic, ardent, fiery, feisty, dashing.- caractère, tempérament fougueux, enflammé, ardent

The Mediterranean island of Corsica had come under French jurisdiction shortly before Napoleon’s birth in 1769. Its dramatic landscape and distinctive culture, characterised by strong family ties and volatile feuds, are often held to have shaped Napoleon’s nature and values.
(feud=querelle, dispute)

• He gets feisty when he talks about politics.

Skeleton(s) in the closet/cupboard

To have a secret of any sort that you don't want revealed, a hidden and shocking secret.- un cadavre dans le placard

• My uncle was in jail for a day once. That's our family's skeleton in the closet.

Origin:

The phrase 'a skeleton in the closet' was coined in England in the 19th century. Since then the word 'closet' has become used primarily in England to mean 'water closet'. The English now usually use 'a skeleton in the cupboard', with 'skeleton in the closet' more common in the USA.

'A skeleton in the closet' undoubtedly originated as an allusion to an apparently irreproachable person or family having a guilty secret waiting to be uncovered. The close-at-hand domestic imagery of a closet or cupboard gives a sense of the ever-present risk of discovery.

Windbag

slang, figurative, pejorative = [sb] who talks excessively.- grande gueule, moulin à paroles, pipelette

syn: bigmouth, babblermouth, gasbag

To be gobsmacked

utterly astonished; astounded- être baba
gob= la bouche, clapet    smacked= bise



being totally speachless.unable to think of anything to say.

• Mate, that's such a wicked surprise! I'm gobsmacked (wicked= sacré)

At the eleventh hour

At the eleventh hour (figurative): at the last possible moment.- au tout dernier moment, in extremis

Just before the last clock hour, 12

• At the eleventh hour, the supplies reached the starving villagers.
• Negotiators reached agreement at the eleventh hour, just in time to avoid a strike.

To be cheesed off

to be cheesed off by so, to get cheesed off with sth. (informal) - en avoir marre de quelque chose 

Syn: to be browned off, to be exasperated, to be pissed off (informal) 

annoyed and disappointed with something or someone: greatly annoyed; out of patience; "had an exasperated look on his face"; "felt exasperated beyond endurance

• I was really cheesed off that they made me go to the back of the queue
• She's a bitcheesed off with her job.

To paint the town red

to go out and celebrate; to go on a drinking bout; to get drunk. - Faire la bringue

• They were out painting the town red last night.

Origin

The expression is American slang meaning to go on a reckless debauch, to be wildly extravagant. Originally, the metaphor applied to bonfires painting the sky or scenery red. An old Irish ballad contains the lines: The beacon hills were painted red/ With many a fire that night. 

The immediate source of the phrase may be traced to the times when a Mississippi steamboat captain would want to defeat his rival. `Paint her, boys!' he would command his men as they heaped fuel upon the fires at night, casting a red glare upon the surrounding scenery. The phrase was helped into popularity by the fact that `to paint' (ie to paint the nose red) was an old slang term for drinking. [Source: Handybook of Literary Curiosities, by William S Walsh (Lippincott 1892).]
Peter Whitehead, Shaw Heath

To get a kick out of something

get a kick out of something/doing something - profiter de quelque chose
to enjoy doing something very much 

•  Anyone who gets a kick out of horror movies will love this show. 
• I get a real kick out of shopping for new shoes.

Glory box PORTISHEAD

The song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uciibl0rcs

The movie:
The song is one of the audio tracks taken from the movie "Wild":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn2-GSqPyl0

A true story about a woman who went on a long journey in the mountains to find herself back....

On spotify:
http://www.pcta.org/wild/2014/11/14/listen-wild-movie-soundtrack-spotify/

Vocabulary:

temptress: une séductrice, femme fatale

• a woman who is considered to be dangerously seductive
• a woman who tempts someone to do something, typically a sexually attractive woman who sets out to allure or seduce someone.

Lyrics

"Glory Box"

I'm so tired of playing
Playing with this bow and arrow
Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play
For I've been a temptress too long

Just...

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
I just wanna be a woman

From this time, unchained
We're all looking at a different picture
Through this new frame of mind
A thousand flowers could bloom
Move over and give us some room

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
I just wanna be a woman

[INSTRUMENTAL]

So don't you stop being a man
Just take a little look from outside when you can
Show a little tenderness
No matter if you cry

Give me a reason to love you
Give me a reason to be a woman
It's all I wanna be is all woman

For this is the beginning of forever and ever

It's time to move over...

To take a chill pill

To relax, to take it easy.- décompresser, se relaxer, prendre du recul

The best time to relax is when you don't have time for it!

• She was getting so stressed about what her boss said to her that I told her to just take a chill pill – everything would be fine.
• My wife's working so hard, she needs to take a chill pill, otherwise she'll make herself ill.

Examples from the BBC "The English we speak"

Pep talk

a talk during which someone encourages you to do something better or to work harder.- discours de motivation, paroles d'encouragement

• We got a pep talk from our coach.
• The manager gave the team a pep talk at half time.

To nitpick

To be overly critical, concerned with insignificant details - chercher la petite bête, être tatillon

• her husband nitpicks about everything: from how she puts the plates away to how she files the bills

to be nit-picky, to be a nit-picker

• For those nit-pickers out there, yes, the album wasn't released in 2004-in fact, disk one was actually released in 2001.

Spoon-fed

To provide (another) with knowledge or information in an oversimplified way. - mâcher le travail à quelqu'un

• By giving out printed sheets of facts and theories, the teachers spoon-fed us with what we needed for the exam

"Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon" E.M. Forster

To battle for hearts and minds

The hearts and minds of somebody
the complete support of a group of people

• I thought the president could have done a better job of reaching the hearts and minds of the American people in his speech on television yesterday.

have/keep (all) your wits about you

to be ready to think quickly in a situation and react to things that you are not expecting. - avoir toute sa tête

• Cycling is potentially very dangerous in the city - you have to keep your wits about you.

Usually, wits.

• intelligent observation, keen perception
  using one's wits to get ahead.
  Synonyms: cleverness, cunning, wisdom, insight, perspicacity, sacaciousness, acumen.
  
• mental faculties
  to lose one's wits; frightened out of one's wits.

• scaring the wits out of: tout à fait effrayant
• to pit one's wits against sb: rivaliser d'esprit avec qn
• to have one's wits about one: avoir toute sa tête
• to pit one's wits against sb: se mesurer à qn
• to keep one's wits about one: garder la tête sur les épaules
• to frighten the wits out of sb: faire une peur bleue à qn
• to use one's wits to do sth: se servir de sa tête pour faire qch
• to gather one's wits: rassembler ses esprits
• be scared out of my wits: être mort de peur
• to engage in a battle of wits: jouer au plus fin
• to be at one's wits' end: ne plus savoir que faire
• wit: esprit,intelligence
• dim wit: imbécile
• dry wit: humour pince-sans-rire ; humour caustique
• Syn. : deadpan.
• half-wit: idiot
• quick wit: vivacité d'esprit
• ready wit: caractère spirituel
• flash of wit: boutade

Moral compass

ethical sense or guide. - sens moral

a natural feeling that makes people know what is right and wrong and how they should behave

• Some people believe that the increase in crime shows that society is losing its moral compass.

Keep a/the lid on something

1. To keep something secret. passer sous silence

• It's supposed to be a surprise, so try to keep a lid on it, will you?

2. to control the level of something in order to stop it increasing, to maintain control over something.- garder sous controle 

• His forces kept a lid on unrest for nearly eight years.
• Economic difficulties continued and the government intervened to keep a lid on inflation.

Pry into something

to snoop into something; to get into someone else's business. - se mêler de, s'immiscer dans, être indiscret

• Why are you prying into my affairs all the time? 
• I wish you wouldn't pry into my personal life.

Stave off something

stave off something also stave something off = prevent, ward off.- contrer, éviter

• so you get good about using the technology to figure out how to stave off that boredom.
• to keep something away or keep something from happening 
• The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates to boost the economy and stave off a recession.
• Death is natural and inevitable - we can't stave it off forever.
• He could stave his thirst off no longer.
• They say that if you take extra vitamins, you may be able to stave off the flu.

Stuck in a rut

bored by routine. - enlisé dans une routine

• But people often feel they want to change their life, to change their job. They might feel stuck in a rut. 

To eat humble pie

to be forced to admit that you are wrong and to say you are sorry 

• The producers of the advert had to eat humble pie and apologize for misrepresenting the facts.

faire amende honorable, reconnaître son erreur, admettre son erreur

Under the radar

To slip or to go under the radar. To go unnoticed, especially for a long period of time.- passer entre les mailles du filet

• They know they're buying links and choosing to go under the radar to avoid penalties
• While the majority are well looked after, we know in extreme cases that things go very wrong for these children because they go under the radar

Small talk

chat, converse about trivial subjects.- papoter, bavarder, faire la causette

• I'm no good at making small talk at parties.

Fluffy

covered with soft fur

fluffy toy : peluche

fluffy duck: duveteux, duveteuse
(nuage) floconneux, floconneuse
(nourriture) léger, légère, aérien, aérienne
(chat) au poil soyeux adj
(serviette) doux, douce adj

Go viral

 "Turnip for What"

the video which featured the first lady dancing with a turnip to the hit song “Turn Down for What” has been “looped” more than 1 million times. 

This video has gone viral!

http://youtu.be/7nngvq9C-0Q

Creed

belief system, ethos

• no matter what race or creed (= religious belief).-croyance

• their creed of self-help (= principles).- philosophie

In the line of duty

while doing a job. 

• The fireman was injured in the line of duty -  dans l'exercice de leurs fonctions, en service

Thanks Charlie!

Drawing by Lucille Clerc.
Free speech  is the way ideas are tested, in contrast to orthodoxy being owned by the most powerful trying to impose their ways of thinking.  
Without freedom to challenge orthodoxy, any other freedoms will not last long...

banger

His car's an old banger:
Sa voiture est un vieux tacot, vieille bagnole

Bangers and mash:  
les saucisses à la purée