sucer de son pouce

French

Etymology

Calque of Dutch uit zijn duim zuigen. See also English suck out of one's thumb.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /sy.se d(ə) sɔ̃ pus/

Verb

sucer de son pouce

(Belgium, Rwanda, Congo, transitive, informal) to guess, to predict; to invent, to pull out of one's ass; to know
Synonyms: deviner, prévoir, s’attendre à, inventer, sortir de nulle part, tirer de nulle part, savoir, avoir la science infuse

Je peux pas le sucer de mon pouce ! ― How should I know?

Je pouvais pas le sucer de mon pouce ! ― How was I supposed to know?
- 1940, Édouard Baudry, Les Lortie: roman‎^[1], page 28:
  Tiens ! si tu ne lui avais pas dit que je ne travaillais pas, il n’aurait pas pu le sucer de son pouce, ce vieux-là !
  Look, if you hadn't told the old codger that I wasn't working, he would have had no way of knowing!
- 1989, Serge Livrozet, L'empreinte‎^[2], →ISBN:
  Dites-moi, les journaux, ce qu’ils racontent sur moi, ils ne l’ont quand même pas sucé de leur pouce. Il a bien fallu que vous les aidiez un peu.
  Be honest: the things the newspapers are saying about me, they didn't just pull them out of thin air, did they? You had to help them out a bit.
- 2015, Étienne Hermant, Le Chant de l'Étoile: Thriller ésotérique‎^[3], →ISBN:
  N’oublie pas que les Templiers sont des moines-soldats. Cette notion, révolutionnaire à l’époque, en Occident, ils ne l’ont pas sucé de leur pouce. Il existait, en Orient, des confréries de guerriers pratiquant un service armé et religieux dans des sortes de monastères fortifiés appelés Ribât et pour certains tenus par des soufis.
  Don't forget that the Knights Templar were warrior monks. This concept was revolutionary at the time, but people in the West did not pull it out of thin air. In the East there were brotherhoods of warriors who performed military and religious duties in fortified monasteries called ribats, some of which were run by Soufis.

Usage notes

Used in negative sentences.