œuvres vives

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /œ.vʁə viv/

Noun

œuvres vives f pl (plural only)

  1. (nautical, dated) quickwork (the submerged part of a hull)
    Antonym: œuvres mortes
  2. (figuratively) A person's vitals.
    • 1871, Amédée Achard, Récits d'un soldat:
      Il faut avoir été chasseur ou soldat pour savoir ce que c’est qu’une plaie au talon, à la cheville, au cou-de-pied. Mieux vaudrait avoir un bras cassé ou une balle dans l’épaule.Comme disent les marins, on est atteint dans ses œuvres vives.
      One has to have been a hunter or a soldier to know what a wound on the heel, or the ankle, or the instep is. Better to have a broken arm or a bullet in the shoulder. As the sailors say, one has been hit in their vitals.

See also

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.