Mot du jour: dégonfler

Today's word has quite a few meanings depending on how it's used.

Definition: to deflate, to let the air out (Also, in the sense of swelling of a body part subsiding)

1) Dégonfler un matelas pneumatique
    -To deflate an air mattress

2) When used as a pronominal verb (se dégonfler), it carries the literal meaning of something losing its inflation, but also is used figuratively as to become afraid, to hesitate, to have second thoughts, to chicken out, etc.

On est toujours libre de se dégonfler.
-You can always chicken out. (Alternatively: Anybody who's afraid can go home.)


3) When the past participle is used as a noun (un dégonflé), it means a coward.*

Il n'avait pas envie de passer pour un dégonflé.
-He didn't want to seem like a coward. (Alternatively: He didn't want anyone to think he was afraid.)


*Funny sidebar: When I looked this up in my Petit Robert to see the example they gave, it was the sentence that I saw in the short story that I'm currently reading (Les bottes de sept lieues by Marcel Aymé) that inspired me to do a spotlight on this word!  

Mot du jour: délaver

Definition: to fade, to wash out, to waterlog

I was reading a short story by Alain Robbe-Grillet called La Plage and came across this word in the description of the children's clothing.

Ils sont habillés tous les trois de la même façon, culotte courte et chemisette, l'une et l'autre en grosse toile d'un bleu délavé.
-They are all three dressed alike; shorts and shirt, both of a coarse, faded blue linen.

Mot du jour: chantonner

Definition: to hum
Synonym: fredonner

Amélie aime chantonner en faisant la cuisine.
-Amélie likes to hum while cooking.