[Bonir = to talk like clowns at a fair.]
Bonjour
C’est simple comme bonjour = It is as easy as kiss your hand.
Bonnet
*C’est bonnet blanc et blanc bonnet = It is six of one and half-a-dozen of the other.
C’est un des gros bonnets (or, légumes) de l’endroit = He is one of the bigwigs of the place.
Il a la tête près du bonnet = He is quick-tempered, easily ruffled.
Il a mis son bonnet de travers = He is in a bad temper; He got out of bed the wrong side.
[Also: Il s’est levé du mauvais côté (or, pied).]
Jeter son bonnet par dessus les moulins (of women) = To throw off all restraint; Not to care a straw for what people may think of your bad conduct.
Ce sont deux têtes dans un bonnet = They are hand and glove together.
Être triste (gai, ironic.) comme un bonnet de nuit = To be as dull as ditchwater; To be in the dumps.
[Also: Gai comme une porte de prison.]
Il a pris cela sous son bonnet = 1. He invented it. 2. He took it upon himself.
Ses collègues opinent du bonnet = His colleagues agree with what he says (without speaking). (See Opiner.)
Borgne
*“Dans le royaume des aveugles les borgnes sont rois” = Among the blind, the one-eyed is king.
[The quotation comes from J. J. Rousseau’s Confessions, Part i., Bk. v.]
Borne
Il est planté là comme une borne = He stands there like a post.
Borner
Il faut savoir se borner = One must place limits on one’s desires.
[“Qui ne sait se borner ne sut jamais écrire.” Boileau, Art Poétique, i.]
Bossu
Rire comme un bossu = To split one’s sides with laughter.
Botte
Il a mis du foin dans ses bottes = He has feathered his nest; He has taken care of number one.
Il est haut comme ma botte = He is a mere sixpennyworth of halfpence; He is very short.
A propos de bottes = With reference to nothing in particular.
Bouc
C’est le bouc émissaire = He is the scapegoat.
Bouche
Faire la bouche en cœur = To try and look amiable; To put on a captivating look; To purse up one’s lips.
Cet argument me ferma la bouche = That argument was a poser for me; I could not reply to that.
Il y en avait à bouche que veux-tu = There was a plentiful supply of it.
Je garde cela pour la bonne bouche = I am keeping that for the last.
[Une bonne bouche = A tit-bit.]
Il prend sur sa bouche pour aider ces gens = He stints himself to help those people.
Faire la petite bouche = To be dainty; To have a small appetite; To be hard to please.
Bouche close (cousue)! = Not a word, mind! “Mum’s the word.”
La bouche fendue jusqu’aux oreilles = A mouth stretching from ear to ear.
Être sur sa bouche = To be an epicure.
Bouchée
Mettre les bouchées doubles = To eat quickly; To hurry.
Boule
Perdre la boule (pop.) = To lose one’s head; Not to know what one is doing. (See Tramontane.)
Bourgeois
Les officiers étaient en bourgeois (or, en civil) = The officers were in plain clothes, in mufti.
Elle fait une bonne cuisine bourgeoise = She is a good plain cook.
Je prends mes repas dans une pension bourgeoise = I board at a private boarding-house.
Bourse
*Selon ta bourse gouverne ta bouche = Cut your coat according to your cloth.
[“Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse;
Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.”
Benjamin Franklin.]
Faire bon marché de sa bourse = To say a thing has cost less than it has.
Obtenir une bourse au lycée = To gain an exhibition (or, scholarship) at a public school.
Avoir toujours la bourse à la main = To have always one’s hand in one’s pocket.
Loger le diable dans sa bourse = To be penniless.
[Coins generally had a cross on them, which was a protection against the devil. (See Diable.) Compare Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, xxi.—“We have not seen the cross of her money.”]
Ami jusqu’à la bourse = A lukewarm friend.
Sans bourse délier = Without any expense.
Bout
Il tira à bout portant = He fired point-blank.
*Au bout de l’aune faut (or, manque) le drap = There is an end to everything; The last straw breaks the camel’s back.
Il est économe de bouts de chandelle = He is penny wise and pound foolish.
[Or, Il fait des économies de bouts de chandelle.]
Il a ri du bout des lèvres = He laughed in a forced manner.
Il est poète jusqu’au bout des ongles = He is a poet to his finger-tips.
Je suis à bout de force = I am exhausted, done up.
C’est le bout du monde = That is the utmost.
Être au bout de son rouleau, de son latin, de sa gamme = To be at one’s wits’ end; Not to know what to do.
Il répète la même chose à tout bout de champ = He repeats the same thing every instant, every time he has the chance.
Eh bien! au bout du compte vous avez tort = Well! you are wrong, after all.
Ma patience est à bout = My patience is exhausted.
Il m’a poussé à bout = He provoked me beyond endurance.
Laisser voir le bout de l’oreille = To show one’s ignorance (or, true character); To show what one is driving at; To show the cloven hoof.
[A reference to the fable of the ass in the lion’s skin.]
Tenir le haut bout = To have the whip hand.
Boute-en-train
C’est un vrai boute-en-train = He is the very life and soul of the party.
Bouteille
Il n’a rien vu que par le trou d’une bouteille = He has seen nothing of the world.