French Work and Status Slang

Work and Jobs Le travail

Work, the job Le boulot

The workplace La boite

To work Bosser, boulonner

To work hard Bucher

Hard-working Bucheur, euse

Laziness La cosse
La flemme

Lazy Flemmard,e

To be bone-idle Avoir un poil dans la main

A failure Un raté, une ratée

To exploit Faire suer le burnous

(suer = to perspire, le burnous = an Arabian robe-

like garment; from the good old days of the
Empire when one made the Arabs work like
slaves)

To sack, to kick out Vider (literally, empty out)

Foutre à la porte

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To have friends in the right places Avoir du piston

String-pulling Le piston

To pull strings on behalf of Pistonner quelqu’un

someone

To grease someone’s palm Graisser la patte à quelqu’un

A bigwig Une grosse légume

Un gros bonnet
Une huile

A cop, a policeman Un flic

Un poulet

The fuzz, the police La flicaille

Down with the pigs! Mort aux vaches!

A cop on two wheels Une vache à roulettes

A member of the Un barbouze

security/espionage services

A bodyguard Un gorille

A quack (a doctor) Un toubib (docteur)

A teacher Un prof

A chef Un cuistot

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A funeral parlour employee Un croque-mort

(croquer = to bite into, to munch)

A priest in his cassock Un corbeau (literally, a crow)

A politician Un politicard

A lady lavatory attendant Une dame-pipi

A cobbler Un bouif

A painter (the artistic sort) Un barbouilleur

(barbouiller = to smear, to scrawl)

Third-rate paintings Les croûtes (f)

A third-rate book, film or other Un navet

work of art

A paper-pusher (usually a Un rond-de-cuir

bureaucrat)

A soldier Un troufion

© Talk in French