One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.[…]But out of sight is out of mind. And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are indire need of repair.
2019 August 30, Jonathan Watts, “Amazon fires show world heading for point of no return, says UN”, inThe Guardian[1]:
Cristiana Paşca Palmer, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said the destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest was a grim reminder that a fresh approach needed to stabilise the climate and prevent ecosystems from declining to a point of no return, withdire consequences for humanity.
A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after somedire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.
1889,Fortuné du Boisgobey,Double-Blanc [Double-Blank], Paris: Plon & Nourrit, page213:
— Parfaitement... et ila dit à ces dames que c'était un étranger, arrivé récemment à Paris et colossalement riche.
— Perfectly…and hetold these ladies that he was a foreigner, recently arrived in Paris and colossally rich.
1910 [1908],H. G. Wells, translated by Henry-D. Davray and B. Kozakiewicz,La Guerre dans les airs,1921 edition, Paris: Mercure de France, translation ofThe War in the Air (in English), page247:
Bien qu'il n'eût pu comprendre un seul mot de ce quiavait été dit, Bert éprouva un choc en remarquant le ton qu'avait pris l'homme.
Although he could not have understood a single word of that whichhad been said, Bert felt a shock while noticing the tone that the man had taken.
2022 January 5, Béatrice Dillies, “Au vaccinodrome d'Albi : "Emmanuel Macron dit tout haut ce que tout le monde pense tout bas" [At the Albi Mass Vaccination Centre: "Emmanuel Macron says out loud what everyone is quietly thinking"]”, inLa Dépêche[2], archived fromthe original on29 July 2024:
Emmanuel Macron aurait dû se mordre la langue avant de parler d'emmerder les récalcitrants. Mais ila dit tout haut ce que tout le monde pense tout bas.
Emmanuel Macron should have bitten his tongue before talking about bugging the recalcitrants. But hesaid out loud what everyone is quietly thinking.
Dire qu'on fait des cookies, c'est bien, mais il faut ensuite les partager.(American saying) ―To say that one is making some cookies, it is good, but it is then necessary to share them.
(transitive) to say, to tell (to set out in writing)
Je vousai dit dans ma dernière lettre que…. ―Itold you in my last letter that….
Cet auteura dit là-dessus d'excellentes choses. ―This authorhas said some excellent things about it.
(transitive) to say (often used in the sense of responding to an objection)
Qu'avez-vous àdire à cela ? ―What do you have tosay to that?
Que trouvez-vous à dire à cette action ?(in this sense, one more commonly saystrouver à redire(to find fault with)) ―What do you have tosay to this action? (literally, “What do you find tosay to this action?”)
Il y a bien àdire, beaucoup àdire là-dessus.(There are a lot of criticisms, of objections, of observations, etc., to make about that.) ―There is much tosay, very much tosay about that.
Ondit en des sens analogues ou contraires. ―Onesays in similar or opposite senses.
On ne peut certainement riendire sur sa conduite. ―One certainly cannotsay anything about their conduct.
(transitive,poetic) to say, to tell of (to celebrate, to sing, to narrate)
1888,Jean le Rond d'Alembert,La Suppression des jésuites (éd. populaire abrégée) [The Suppression of the Jesuits (Abridged Popular Ed.)][3], Édouard Cornély:
Il leur offrit dedire la messe pour leur obtenir de Dieu, au lieu de l'argent qu'ils demandaient, la grâce de souffrir chrétiennement leur ruine.
He offered tosay mass to them to obtain for them from God, instead of the money that they were requesting, the grace to suffer their ruinChristianly.
Jedirai vos exploits. ―Iwill tell of your exploits.
(transitive, current) to say, to tell (to deliver, to recite)
1889,Fortuné du Boisgobey,Double-Blanc [Double-Blank], Paris: Plon & Nourrit, page187:
C'est bon, je n'aime pas à jouer les gêneurs. Je vais faire un tour au foyer, pendant que tudiras ton couplet.
It's fine, I don't like to play the nuisance. I'm going to take a walk in the foyer, whilst yousay your verse.
[…] ; sous ses cheveux, un œil gris brillait à la moindre contrariété d'un feu si resplendissant, qu'oneût dit alors un œil noir.
[…]; under his headhair, a grey eye was shining at the slightest irritation with a fire so gleaming, that itseemed to be then a black eye.
1910,Gaston Leroux,Le Fantôme de l'Opéra [The Phantom of the Opera]:
Il semblait, en effet, à tout le monde qu'un frôlement se faisait entendre derrière la porte. Aucun bruit de pas. Oneût dit d'une soie légère qui glissait sur le panneau.
It seemed, indeed, to everyone that a rustling could be heard behind the door. No sounds of footsteps. Itseemed to be a light silk that was sliding along the panel.
1945,Léon Frapié, “La croix [The Cross]”, inLes contes de la maternelle [Kindergarten Tales], Éditions Self, page29:
Marie, petite pour ses six ans, les yeux très brillants, la frimousse tendue, presque douloureuse, porte un tablier noir et un minuscule jupon qui laisse voir ses jambes minces, pitoyables. Ondirait d'une poupée tragique.
Marie, small for her six years, her eyes very bright, her cute little face tight, almost painful, wears a black pinafore and a tiny petticoat that lets you see her thin, pitiful legs. Shelooks like a tragic doll.
2006,Angelo Rinaldi, chapter 1, inOù finira le fleuve [Where the River Will End], Fayard:
Dirait-il que le mouvement de la marche avait révélé la doublure de ce vêtement – était-ce de la castorette ? –, outre une jupe de tweed qui descendait jusqu'au genou ?
Would hesay that the movement of the march had revealed the lining of this garment – was it beaver fur? –, in addition to a tweed skirt that went down to the knee?
2021 December 7, Marie-Ève Doyon, “Rire des gros, c'est un manque de classe [To Laugh at Overweight People, It Is a Lack of Class]”, inLa Journal de Québec:
Bien justement. Ce n'est pas parce qu'on peut toutdire qu'il fautdire n'importe quoi.
Well exactly. It is not because you cansay anything that it is necessary tosay anything.
1933,François Mauriac,Le Nœud de vipères [The Knot of Vipers], Éditions Grasset, page23, Le Livre de Poche:
Ondirait d’une main qui se pose sur mon épaule gauche, qui l’immobilise dans une fausse position, comme ferait quelqu’un qui ne voudrait pas que je l’oublie.
Itfeels like a hand that is resting on my left shoulder, that immobilizes it in a false position, as someone who would not want me to forget it would do.
Ondit de même. ―Itseems like the same.
Ondirait de loin une barque; ce n’est peut-être qu’une planche. ―Itlooks like a small boat from afar; maybe it is not just a plank.
Ondirait d’un fou, d’un homme ivre, etc., ou Ondirait un fou. ―Helooked like a madman, a drunk man, etc.; heseemed mad/drunk (=judging by his actions, by his speech, one would take him for a madman, one would believe him drunk).
(transitive) to mean, to say, to state (to denote, to signify, to indicate, to mark)
1951,Julien Gracq,Le Rivage des Syrtes [The Shore of Sirtes], José Corti:
La fidélité aux traditions, devenue presque maniaque,disait l'appauvrissement d'un sang incapable de recréer.
Fidelity to tradition, which had become almost maniacal,meant the impoverishment of blood unable to recreate.
1992,Frédéric Lasaygues,Back to la Zone [Back to the Zone], Paris: Éditions J'ai Lu:
— Vous êtes au courant de l'arnaque ? C'est l'hypercherie ! L'embrouille totale. Tout est truqué. Silbermann, ça vousdit quelque chose ? C'est lui le cerveau de la magouille !
— You're in the current of the con? It's the great deception! The total mix-up. Everything is falsified. Silbermann, does thatmean anything to you? It is him the brain of the scheme!
(Can wedate this quote?),Edmond Rostand,Cyrano de Bergerac, Act IV, Scene 4:
Vous savez ce détail ?… En effet, il advint, / Durant que je faisais ma caracole afin / De rassembler mes gens pour la troisième charge, / Qu'un remous de fuyards m'entraîna sur la marge / Des ennemis ; j'étais en danger qu'on me prît / Et qu'on m'arquebusât, quand j'eus le bon esprit / De dénouer et de laisser couler à terre / L'écharpe quidisait mon grade militaire ;
You know this detail?… Indeed, it happened, / That while I was making my caracole in order / To assemble my men for the third charge, / That a swirl of fleers drew me onto the fringe / Of the enemy; I was in danger of being captured / And of being arquebused, when I had the good sense / to untie and to let fall to the ground / the scarf thatstated my military rank;
Que veutdire ce retard ? ―What does this delaymean? (literally, “What does this delay wantto say?”)
Cela veutdire que… Cela ne dit rien. ―Itmeans that… It does not say anything. (literally, “It wantsto say that… It does not say anything.”)
Que veutdire ceci ? ―What does thismean? (literally, “What does this wantto say?”)
Ce mot seuldit tout. ―This word alonesays it all.
Je ne sais ce que cela veutdire, je me sens mal à mon aise. ―I do not know what itmeans, I feel ill at my ease. (literally, “I do not know what it wantsto say, I feel ill at my ease.”)
Ondit : cet homme est un lion, pourdire que c’est un homme plein de courage. ―Onesays: this man is a lion, tomean that he is a man full of courage.
(transitive,figuratively) to say, to tell (used when speaking of actions, of gestures, of looks, etc., that demonstrate someone's thinking)
Mes yeux, mes regards vousdisent que je vous aime. ―My eyes, my lookstell you that I love you.
Sa contenance, son trouble, sa confusiondisent assez qu'il est coupable. ―His composure, his trouble, his confusionsay enough that he is guilty.
Leur silence vous endit assez, nous en dit long. ―Their silencetells you enough of it, tells us a lot of it.
Cette femme a de beaux yeux, mais ils nedisent rien.(She has beautiful eyes, but they are devoid of vivacity, of expression.) ―This woman has beautiful eyes, but they do notsay anything.
Cette chose nedit rien.(It does not produce any effect in the place that it occupies.) ―This thing does notsay anything.
Cela nedit rien au cœur, à l'âme.(It touches not, moves not.) ―It does notsay anything to the heart, to the soul
Cela ne medit rien. ―It does nottell me anything.
Qui vousdit, qui vous adit que…?(What reason do you have to believe that…? Are you sure that…?) ―Whotells you, whotold you that…?
Qui vousdit que j'ai cette intention ? ―Whotells you that I have that intention?
Qui vous adit que rien ne s'opposerait à vos desseins ? ―Whotold you that nothing would be opposed to your designs?
(intransitive) to say (to express what one thinks, what one feels, what one sees)
2022,Maurice Henrie,La tête haute [My Head Held High], University of Ottawa Press, page158:
Et vous vous réveillez un jour avec ce besoin irrépressible de « dire ».
And you wake up one day with this irrepressible need to "say".
(reflexive) to say (to signify, to be used for a word, a phrase, a sentence)
Ce motse dit de telle chose. ―This wordis said of such a thing.
Ce proverbese dit en parlant d'une personne qui…. ―This proverbis said when speaking of a person who….
Cela nese dit qu'en mauvaise part. ―Itis said only in a bad way.
Cela nese dit plus. ―Itis notsaid anymore.
(reflexive) to say (to claim, to assure that one has a certain quality)
Ilse dit votre parent, votre ami. ―Hesays he is your relative, your friend.
Ilse dit au courant de ce service et il n'y connaît rien. ―Hesays he is aware of this service, but he does not know anything about it.
Ilsse disaient envoyés par lui. ―Theysaid they were sent by them.
Ilse disait malade. ―Hesaid he was sick.
(reflexive,transitive) to say to oneself, to think to oneself, to tell oneself, to think (to make this or that reflection, to have this or that thought, to make this or that reasoning within oneself)
1904,Frédéric Weisgerber, edited by Ernest Leroux,Trois mois de campagne au Maroc : étude géographique de la région parcourue [Three Months of Campaigning in Morocco: A Geographical Study of the Region Covered], Paris, page47:
Ils jettent bien encore des regards de convoitise sur nos bêtes, mais nous nous tenons sur nos gardes, et, nous voyant disposés à nous défendre, ils doiventse dire que le jeu ne vaudrait peut-être pas la chandelle.
They cast even more glances of covetousness at our beasts, but we stand on our guard, and, seeing us prepared to defend ourselves, they mustthink that the game would perhaps not be worth the candle.
Jeme le disais bien, jeme l’étais bien dit.(I had a hunch about it.) ―Itold myself so, Itold myself so.
dìre (first-person singular presentdìco,first-person singular past historicdìssi,past participledétto,first-person singular imperfectdicévo,second-person singular imperativedì'or(with syntactic gemination after the verb, with written accent)dì,auxiliaryavére)(transitive)
toutter(produce (speech or other sounds) with one's voice)
mid 13th century, Gherardo Patecchio,Splanamento de li proverbi di Salomone [Explanation of Solomon's proverbs], line21; collected in Roberto Tagliani, editor, compiled by Maria Luisa Meneghetti,Il manoscritto Saibante-Hamilton 390 - Edizione critica[4], Rome: Salerno Editrice,2019,→ISBN, page324:
mid 13th century, Gherardo Patecchio,Splanamento de li proverbi di Salomone [Explanation of Solomon's proverbs], lines13–14; collected in Roberto Tagliani, editor, compiled by Maria Luisa Meneghetti,Il manoscritto Saibante-Hamilton 390 - Edizione critica[5], Rome: Salerno Editrice,2019,→ISBN, page324:
Li savi no ’m reprenda s’eu nodirai sì ben com’ se voravedir[…](northern Italy)
May the wise not reproach me, if Ido notretell as well as one shouldretell[…]
This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.
