“Peigner la girafe” is a fun little French expression that has the literal translation “to comb the giraffe”. This is an expression that has a meaning that’s impossible to guess. Here are some translations:
- to twiddle your thumbs
- to fiddle about doing nothing
- to do busy work
- to do a pointless task
Two English expressions which come close to peigner la girafe are:
- chasing fireflies, and
- flogging a dead horse
A French-to-French definition is “faire des choses inutiles“, to do useless things.
Here’s sample sentence:
- Qu’est-ce que je fais aujourd’hui? Je suis occupé à ne rien faire! Je peigner la girafe. What am I doing today? I’m busy doing nothing. I’m twiddling my thumbs.
Another French expression is “faire ça ou peigner la girafe”, which means “we might as well be whistling in the wind”.
