tirer le diable par la queue

Attested in Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (1694), p. 326, as tirer le diable par la queuë. Literally, “to pull the devil by the tail”.

• IPA^(key): /ti.ʁe lə dja.blə paʁ la kø/

• Audio

  (file)

tirer le diable par la queue

1. to scrape by, to live from hand to mouth, to feel the pinch, to have trouble to make ends meet, not to have enough to live

• joindre les deux bouts

• “diable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.