/dɔʁmiʁ kɔm‿œ̃ lwaʁ/ lit. ‘sleep like a dormouse’
French idiom, everyday. To sleep very deeply and soundly, without waking up.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Dormir comme un loir
?
Everyday French that you can use with anyone, from your kids to your boss. It’s nearly always about a good night that already happened, so you’ll hear it in the passé composé: “j’ai dormi comme un loir”. In the present it describes a heavy sleeper: “il dort comme un loir”.
Dormir comme un loir
in real sentences
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J’ai dormi comme un loir.
I slept like a log.
Tatoeba, sentence by lbdx, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Il dort comme un loir.
He sleeps like a log.
Tatoeba, sentence by Scott, translation by Ergulis, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Dormir comme un loir
come from?
The loir is the edible dormouse, a small European rodent that hibernates for around seven months a year, so the comparison is fair. French Wiktionary dates the expression to the 13th century, citing Littré and Rey and Chantreau’s Dictionnaire des expressions et locutions figurées (1979). The oldest full sentence it quotes is from Erckmann-Chatrian in 1867, and Jules Verne used it in 1898 with a joke about the dormouse being the most determined sleeper in all creation.
Mistakes learners make with Dormir comme un loir
Swapping in the English log. French does have a wooden version, “dormir comme une souche” (like a tree stump), but “comme une bûche” (like a log) isn’t the set phrase. Also note that loir sounds exactly like the river Loire: /lwaʁ/.
Other French idioms like Dormir comme un loir
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