/poze œ̃ lapɛ̃/ lit. ‘put down a rabbit’
French idiom, familiar. To not turn up for a date or meeting without telling the other person.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use Poser un lapin
?
Familiar, used among friends and about dating, and mostly in the past tense because you only know afterwards: “il m’a posé un lapin”. The person left waiting takes “à”: “poser un lapin à quelqu’un”, or a pronoun such as “me” or “lui”. “Poser des lapins” is for someone who does it all the time.
Also said poser des lapins
Poser un lapin
in real sentences
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Il m’a posé un lapin; je l’ai attendu toute la soirée !
He stood me up; I waited all evening for him!
Tatoeba, sentence by Cocorico, translation by Dejo, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Tom a posé un lapin à Marie.
Tom stood Mary up.
Tatoeba, sentence by deniko, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Poser un lapin
come from?
French Wiktionary says that at the end of the 19th century “poser un lapin” meant not paying a woman for her favors, or more broadly leaving without paying, and that the meaning slid over time to missing a date. Paul Léautaud already uses it for friends who didn’t show up in Le Petit Ami (1903). The same page also links the rabbit to fertility in antiquity, but gives no source for that, so we’d treat it as a guess.
Mistakes learners make with Poser un lapin
Treating the person as a direct object. It’s “elle lui a posé un lapin” and “Tom a posé un lapin à Marie”, never “elle l’a posé un lapin”. The past participle doesn’t agree with the person either: “posé”, not “posée”.
Other French idioms like Poser un lapin
Spot a mistake in Poser un lapin
?
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