French–English dictionary

faire du chantage

(Kenya) To speak ill of someone; to defame someone.

faire du jogging

(transitive) To cause to move at an energetic trot.

faire du mal à

To damage, hurt, or injure something, usually an inanimate object.

faire du shopping

(intransitive) To visit stores or shops to browse or explore merchandise, especially with the intention of buying such merchandise.

faire du skate

(intransitive) To use a skateboard.

faire du snowboard

To ride a snowboard.

faire du strip-tease

(transitive) To fire (a bullet or ball) from a rifle such that it fails to pick up a spin from the rifling.

faire du sur-place

Sometimes followed by over: to hang around or linger in a place, especially in an uncertain manner.

faire du thé

(transitive) To brew (tea) for too long, so that the flavour becomes too strong.

faire du vélo

(intransitive) To ride a bike.

faire du zapping

To use a remote control to repeatedly change channels on a television.

faire échec et mat

(transitive, chess) To put the king of an opponent into checkmate.

faire éclater

(transitive) To cause to break from internal pressure.

faire erreur

(transitive) To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.

faire face

(idiomatic) To confront or deal with directly; to commence a confrontation.

faire face à

(transitive, of a person or animal) To position oneself or itself so as to have one's face closest to (something).

faire fermenter

(transitive) To cause to rise by fermentation.

faire feu

(transitive, sports) To shoot; to attempt to score a goal.

faire fi

(intransitive) To jeer; to laugh with contempt and derision.

faire flip-flap

(intransitive, British) To make a sucking, splashing noise as when walking on muddy ground.

faire floc floc

(intransitive, British) To make a sucking, splashing noise as when walking on muddy ground.

faire fondre

(ergative) To change (or to be changed) from a solid state to a liquid state, usually by a gradual heat.

faire frire

(transitive) To cook (food) by deep-frying.

faire froid

(of the weather) Causing the air to be cold.

faire gaffe

(transitive) To be wary or cautious of.

faire germer

(transitive) To cause to grow from a seed.

faire glisser

(transitive, intransitive, computing, GUI) To interact with a touch screen by drawing one's finger rapidly across it.

faire grève

(transitive) To give, as a blow; to impel, as with a blow; to give a force to; to dash; to cast.

faire guili-guili

(transitive) To touch repeatedly or stroke delicately in a manner which typically causes laughter, pleasure and twitching.

faire halte

(intransitive) To stop either temporarily or permanently.

faire l'amour

(informal, chiefly, UK, ambitransitive) To have sexual intercourse (with).

faire l'apologie de

(intransitive, dated) To make an apologia or defense; to act as apologist.

faire l'école buissonnière

(ambitransitive) To deliberately not attend classes; to play hookey.

faire l'homme de paille

(pejorative, intransitive, transitive) To promote or endorse in return for payment, especially dishonestly; sometimes extended sarcastically even to those not paid but strongly biased in favor.

faire l’école buissonnière

(British, India) To fail to attend school or work without permission; to play truant (usually as in 'to bunk off').

faire la connaissance de

To perceive; to come to a knowledge of; to have personal acquaintance with; to experience; to suffer.

faire la cour

(transitive) To attempt to attract; to invite by attractions; to allure.

faire la critique

To review something; to criticize.

faire la fête

(transitive, or, intransitive) To engage in joyful activity in appreciation of an event.

faire la guerre

(intransitive) To engage in conflict (may be followed by "with" to specify the foe).

faire la gueule

(intransitive) To express ill humor or offence by remaining sullenly silent or withdrawn.

faire la leçon

(transitive) To preach, to berate, to scold.

faire la manche

(intransitive, US) To beg for money, especially with a container in hand for receiving loose change, especially on the street, and particularly, as a homeless or vagrant person.

faire la morale

(transitive) To preach, to berate, to scold.

faire la moue

(intransitive) To push out one's lips.

faire la multiplication

(intransitive, arithmetic) To perform multiplication.

faire la navette

(intransitive, US, UK, Canada) To regularly travel from one's home to one's workplace or school, or vice versa.

faire la promo

(transitive) To promote (something, especially a product or service); to mention (something) as if promoting or advertising it.

faire la promotion de...

(transitive) To advocate or urge on behalf of (something or someone); to attempt to popularize or sell by means of advertising or publicity.

faire la pub

(transitive) To promote (something, especially a product or service); to mention (something) as if promoting or advertising it.

faire la queue

(intransitive) To get into a line; especially, so as to wait one's turn.

faire la sieste

To have a nap; to sleep for a short period of time, especially during the day.

faire le beau

(intransitive) To engage in peacocking, ostentatious dress or behaviour to impress women.

faire le chasse-neige

(skiing) To move the feet apart and point the tips of the skis inward in order to slow down the speed or to facilitate a turn.

faire le crawl

(intransitive, transitive) To swim using the crawl stroke.

faire le malade

(ambitransitive) To feign illness, injury, or incapacitation in order to avoid work, obligation, or perilous risk.

faire le plein

(intransitive) To fill the tank of a vehicle with fuel.

faire le service

(intransitive, stative, US) To wait tables; to serve customers in a restaurant or other eating establishment.

faire le signe de la croix

(reflexive, to cross oneself) To make the sign of the cross over oneself.

faire les cent pas

To walk back and forth in a small distance.

faire les courses

To undertake a journey to complete multiple small tasks of low importance, usually for household or business matters.

faire les magasins

(intransitive) To visit stores or shops to browse or explore merchandise, especially with the intention of buying such merchandise.

faire lever

(transitive) To cause to rise by fermentation.

faire machine arrière

(intransitive, idiomatic) To distance oneself from an earlier claim or statement; back off from an idea.

faire mal

(intransitive, stative) To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed.

faire marche arrière

(intransitive) To move in a direction opposite to that which one is facing, keeping one's attention on the thing in front being avoided.

faire marcher

(transitive, colloquial) To mock or make a fool of (someone) in a playful way.

faire mijoter

(transitive) To cause to cook or to cause to undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point.

faire monter le régime de

(ergative) To increase the speed of a motor, or to operate at a higher speed.

faire mûrir

(transitive) To cause (something) to mature; to make ripe

faire paître

(transitive) To feed or supply (cattle, sheep, etc.) with grass; to furnish pasture for.

faire paniquer

(informal, transitive) To scare or unnerve someone.

faire partie

(of a person) To be accepted in a group.

faire passer

(transitive) To convey or communicate.

faire passer pour

(transitive, intransitive) To represent; to make (something) appear to be true. [from 17th c.]

faire patienter

(transitive) To cause to stop making progress; to hinder; to slow down; to delay or forestall.

faire percoler

(transitive) To pass a liquid through a porous substance; to filter.

faire pile

(transitive, often used with the preposition "up") To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate

faire plouf

To make the sound of an object dropping into a body of liquid.

faire prendre un bain

(transitive) To clean a person by immersion in water or using water; to give someone a bath.

faire pression sur

(intransitive, transitive) To attempt to influence (a public official or decision-maker) in favor of a specific opinion or cause.

faire rage

(sometimes, figurative) To move with great violence, as a storm etc.

faire référence à

(sometimes, proscribed) To mention, to refer to.

faire remonter

(transitive) In technical support, to transfer a customer, a problem, etc. to the next higher level of authority

faire rétrécir

(transitive) To cause to become smaller.

faire revenir

(transitive) To reenact an old rule or law.

faire revolte

(intransitive) To commit a mutiny.

faire rimer

(intransitive, of an utterance, text, etc.) To contain words that are pronounced identically to each other from the vowel in the stressed syllable to the end.

faire rougir

(transitive) To make red or redder.

faire rouler

(ergative) To revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with a revolving motion on a supporting surface.

faire roussir

(cooking, transitive) To cook something until it becomes brown.

faire s'entrechoquer

(intransitive) To make a rattling noise; to make noise by or from shaking.

faire sa toilette

(intransitive) To clean oneself with water.

faire sécher

(transitive, figurative) To exhaust; to cause to run dry.

faire semblant

Not really what it is represented as being; imaginary, feigned.

faire ses adieux

To bid farewell or say goodbye.

faire signe

(ambitransitive) To wave or nod to somebody with the intention to make the person come closer.

faire signer

(intransitive) To finalise a contractual agreement to work for a given sports team, record label etc. [from 19th c.]

faire son rot

(transitive) To cause someone (such as a baby) to burp.

faire sortir

(transitive) To cause to take flight from concealment.

faire suffoquer

(transitive) To smother or suffocate someone.

faire suivre

(transitive) To instruct to go, inquire, elsewhere.

faire tanguer

(transitive) To cause to shake or sway violently.

faire taxi

To move an aircraft on the ground under its own power.

faire tic-tac

To make a clicking noise similar to the movement of the hands of an analog clock.

faire tomber

(transitive) To make something fall; especially to chop down a tree.

faire tourner

(transitive) To spin, turn, or revolve something.

faire tourner à plein régime

(ergative) To increase the speed of a motor, or to operate at a higher speed.

faire traiteur

(ambitransitive) To provide with food, especially for a special occasion as a professional service.

faire tremper

(transitive) To immerse in liquid to the point of saturation or thorough permeation.

faire un appel de phares

To shine, especially with intermittent light; to twinkle; to flicker; to glimmer, as a lamp.

faire un bide

(intransitive, informal) To fail completely; not to be successful at all (of a movie, play, book, song etc.).

faire un carnage

(transitive) To kill someone or something, especially in a particularly brutal manner.

faire un compliment

(ambitransitive) To pay a compliment (to someone); to express a favourable opinion (of someone).

faire un croche-pied

(transitive, obsolete) To detect in a misstep; to catch; to convict.

faire un don

(ambitransitive) To make a donation; to give away something of value to support or contribute towards a cause or for the benefit of another.

faire un faux pas

(idiomatic) To make a mistake.

faire un flop

(intransitive, informal) To fail completely; not to be successful at all (of a movie, play, book, song etc.).

faire un four

(intransitive, informal) To fail completely; not to be successful at all (of a movie, play, book, song etc.).

faire un lob

(transitive) To throw or hit a ball into the air in a high arc.

faire un malaise

(of a being) Lacking strength; weak; languid; inclined to lose consciousness

faire un panoramique

(intransitive) (of a camera) To turn horizontally.

faire un pas

(intransitive) To move the foot in walking; to advance or recede by raising and moving one of the feet to another resting place, or by moving both feet in succession.

faire un petit pont

(sport, transitive) To play the ball between the legs of (an opponent).

faire un tonneau

(intransitive) To flip over onto the back or top; to turn upside down.

faire un trou

(transitive) To stamp holes in; to perforate.

faire une addition

(intransitive, mathematics) To perform the arithmetical operation of addition.

faire une coquille

(transitive) To make a typographical error.

faire une embardée

To make such a sudden, unsteady movement.

faire une enchère

(intransitive) To make an offer to pay or accept a certain price.

faire une exception

(transitive) To exclude; to specify as being an exception.

faire une faute de frappe

(transitive) To make a typographical error.

faire une gaffe

(intransitive) To make a big mistake, especially when it is careless or stupid. [from 1706]

faire une partie de jambes en l’air

(transitive, , intransitive, US, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse (with).

faire une pause

(intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily; to go on break.

faire une rainure

(transitive) To cut a groove or channel in; to form into channels or grooves; to furrow.

faire une surprise à

(transitive) To do something to (a person) that they are not expecting, as a surprise.

faire une transition

(intransitive, LGBTQ) To change one's gender role or physical and sexual characteristics to conform to one's identified gender.

faire une tuerie

(transitive, intransitive) To massacre people in large numbers.

faire usage

To make best use of; to use to its fullest extent, potential, or ability.

faire valoir

(transitive) To justify by providing evidence.

faire voler

(transitive, ergative) To cause to fly (travel or float in the air): to transport via air or the like.

faire-valoir

(authorship, figuratively) In literature, theatre/theater, etc., a character who helps emphasize the traits of the main character and who usually acts as an opponent or antagonist, but can also serve as the sidekick of the protagonist.

faisabilité

The state of being feasible or possible.

faisable

Able to be done in practice.

faisan

(countable) A bird of family Phasianidae, often hunted for food.

faisceau

(countable) A group of objects held together by wrapping or tying.

faiseur

A person who acts a part in a theatrical play or (later) in film or television; a dramatic performer. [from 16th c.]

faiseur de pluie

A medicine man, shaman, or the like, who seeks to induce rain through performing rituals, as in African or Native American cultures.

faiseuse

A person who acts a part in a theatrical play or (later) in film or television; a dramatic performer. [from 16th c.]