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pétrin

mess

noun peh-TRAHN Less Common

Also means

fix

Usage Note

Pétrin literally means a kneading trough for bread dough, but its main modern use is in the fixed expression être dans le pétrin ('to be in a fix / in trouble'). Outside this idiom, the literal bakery sense is rarely encountered in everyday speech.

Examples

"Il est dans le pétrin après cette décision."

Natural Translation

He is in a real mess after that decision.

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