What does “avoir un poil dans la main” mean in French?
Expression française : avoir un poil dans la main
A2 French listening practice · French · Curated for beginners
Avoir un poil dans la main means to be extremely lazy. The picture behind it is absurd and that’s the point: someone so allergic to work that their hand has gone unused long enough for a hair to sprout in the palm. It’s affectionate teasing more than insult, the everyday way the French label a slacker — un fainéant, une fainéante.
Palms famously can’t grow hair, which is exactly why the image lands — it’s in the same impossible-event family as “when pigs fly.” It dates from the 19th century. You’d use it like: Cynthia a vraiment un poil dans la main — elle reste toute la journée dans sa chambre. English reaches for “bone idle” or the gentler “work-shy” for the same idea.