épater les bourgeois

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épater les bourgeois

To surprise people who have traditional views. "Épater" means "to flabbergast" in French. Our world is so crazy these days that it takes a lot to épater les bourgeois. I knew we would épater les bourgeois when we told my grandparents we were having a baby with no plans to get married. You can't épater les bourgeois here, honey—we're old and we've seen everything!
See also: les
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

épater les bourgeois

shock people who have attitudes or views regarded as conventional or complacent.
The French phrase is generally used in English, there being no exact English equivalent. ‘Il faut épater le bourgeois’ (‘one must astonish the bourgeois’) was a comment attributed to the French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire .
1995 Times Because it takes more than a urinal to épater les bourgeois now, the real things that are being hauled into galleries grow ever more provocative: turds, frozen foetuses and used sanitary towels.
See also: les
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
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References in periodicals archive ?
Bourgeois is a member of the American Bar Association, National Association of Bond Lawyers, Mississippi Bar Association and Capital Area Bar Association.
Le Bourgeois was named the division's best player and earned the big move that, at the age of 27 and by his own admission, he feared had past him by.Fast forward to December 2018, he can reflect on a winning debut against Leicester Tigers, facing up against European champions Leinster and Premiership winnersSaracensin their own back yards as well as a commanding display against French giants Toulouse."Any praise is always nice but at the end of the day, for me personally it is, but it's about the team and it's about everyone," said Le Bourgeois, reflecting on his boss' words."It's very pleasing, I don't think anyone expected me to play this much, but it's going really well.
Partially obstructed by a Tigers player, Le Bourgeois also allowed Veainu down his channel in the 57th minute which was shortly followed by Jonny May's second try of the day.
the proletariat, who do not own the means of production as the bourgeois do, are regarded as a commodity and are therefore exposed to market competition and fluctuation.
As Global Head of Investor Engagement for Abraaj, Bourgeois will spearhead the Group's global fundraising efforts and client facing strategies.
Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois is a creative biography of French artist Louise Bourgeois, who is best known for her giant sculptures of spiders, one of which (an edition of a work called Maman) sits outside the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
Bourgeois' official program included a meeting with Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis, and Minister of Transport Uldis Augulis, as well as visiting the Port of Riga.
Bourgeois, SOA Watch founder and a former Maryknoll priest, said during the Nov.
Of course, me being me - something of an authorly pedant - I couldn't resist looking up the word "bourgeois" in my dictionary to confirm my suspicion that it was as damning as it seemed.
Franco Moretti, The Bourgeois: Between History and Literature (New York, Verso, 2013), 224 pp., $26.95 cloth.
Louise Bourgeois, Structures of Existence: The Cells
Opening a Louise Bourgeois show with Maman (1999), her imposing bronze sculpture of a spider, is nothing new.
Coffman Engineers promoted Skip Bourgeois to Vice President of Marketing in November.
Bourgeois Liberty and the Politics of Fear: From Absolutism to Neo-Conservatism.