tirer le diable par la queue
See also: tirer le diable par la queuë
French
Etymology
Attested in Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (1694), p. 326, as tirer le diable par la queuë. Literally, “to pull the devil by the tail”.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ti.ʁe lə dja.blə paʁ la kø/
Audio (file)
Verb
tirer le diable par la queue
- to scrape by, to live from hand to mouth, to feel the pinch, to have trouble to make ends meet, not to have enough to live
See also
- joindre les deux bouts
Further reading
- “diable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.