- tabac
- n. m.1. (abbr. bureau de tabac): Tobacconist's. (In France the licence to sell tobacco nearly always goes with that of selling alcoholic drinks, and the Café-Tabac with its distinctive red diamond-shaped sign is part of the typical French scenery.)2. Fumer du tabac de Chine (joc. & iron.): To smoke 'o.p.'s', to cadge 'smokes' from other people. (The jocularity of the expression stems from the pun on Chine with the meaning of 'cadging', not 'China'.)3. Un mauvais tabac. A 'bad business', a bad state of affairs. C'est un mauvais tabac d'être à court de fric le 20 du mois! It's a sorry thing to have run out of housekeeping money after only three weeks!4. 'Rocket', 'roasting', telling-off. Passer un tabac à quelqu'un: To tear a strip off someone.5. Faire tout un tabac: To 'make a song- and-dance about something', to kick up a fuss.6. Passer quelqu'un à tabac: To give someone 'the third degree', to beat someone up. (The passage à tabac is always associated with alleged police brutality.)7. Coup de tabac (Naval slang): 'Spot of rough weather', storm.8. Se donner un tabac terrible: To give oneself no end of trouble, to spare oneself no effort.9. Faire un tabac terrible (th.): To have a rip-roaring success in a stage production.10. C'est du même tabac! It's six of one, half a dozen of the other! — It's much of a muchness! — It's the same thing!
Dictionary of Modern Colloquial French. 2013.