/sɑ̃nɥije kɔm œ̃ ʁa mɔʁ/ lit. ‘be as bored as a dead rat’
French idiom, colloquial. Something is so boring it wears you out.
Draft Not yet checked by a native French speaker.
How do people use S’ennuyer comme un rat mort
?
Colloquial and very common for an evening, a lecture or a holiday that drags on forever: “je me suis ennuyé comme un rat mort”. Unlike the Italian, the subject is the bored person, not the boring thing. The vulgar variant with “se faire chier” is louder and best kept among friends.
Also said se faire chier comme un rat mort
S’ennuyer comme un rat mort
in real sentences
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Je me fais chier comme un rat mort.
I’m bored to death.
Tatoeba, sentence by sysko, CC BY 2.0 FR
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Pendant toute la durée de la soirée, je n’ai pas réussi à me mettre dans l’ambiance et à m’imprégner de l’ambiance festive, disons que je me suis ennuyé comme un rat mort, c’était un vrai supplice pour moi de rester jusqu’à la fin de la soirée donc j’ai préféré m’éclipser et de ne pas rester jusqu’au bout.
All evening I couldn’t get into the festive mood; let’s say I was bored stiff, staying to the end was torture, so I slipped away early.
Tatoeba, sentence by LoverofEnglish, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does S’ennuyer comme un rat mort
come from?
Nobody knows why the rat, or why a dead one. French Wiktionary’s entry is a stub with no etymology and labels it slang, and I found no earliest attestation. The joke seems to be simple exaggeration: nothing is more bored than something that’s already dead.
Mistakes learners make with S’ennuyer comme un rat mort
Using it for the boring thing: “le film était comme un rat mort” doesn’t work. The person is bored (“je m’ennuie comme un rat mort”); for the film say “c’était rasoir” or “c’était barbant”.
Other French idioms like S’ennuyer comme un rat mort
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