zero

n. m.

1. (of person): 'Nonentity', character of no importance whatsoever. C'est un vrai zéro! He's a real nobody!

2. Le zero: 'The arse-hole', the anus, the anal sphincter.

3. Les avoir à zéro: To 'have the shits', to be in a blue funk, to be petrified. (Alain Rey and Jacques Cellard in their DICTIONNAIRE DU FRANÇAIS NONCONVENTIONNEL associate semantically le zéro and fear, in spite of the fact that the accepted alternative to the above expression is avoir le trouillomètre à zéro.)

4. Etre à zéro:

  a To be 'back to square-one', to have lost all.

  b To be 'knackered', 'buggered', to be exhausted.

5. Bander à zéro:

  a (lit.): To have 'a hard', to have 'the big stick', to have an erection.

  b (fig.): To be 'over the moon' about something, to feel elated. Il bandait à zéro de nous savoir dans la chtouille: He was dead chuffed knowing that we were going through a tough patch.

6. Zéro! (also: zéro pour la question!): No way! — Nothing doing! — Certainly not!

7. Avoir la boule à zéro: To be as bald as a coot. (The origin of the expression lies not in the zeroshape of a bald head, but in the head-shears used by army and prison barbers, known as zéro or double-zéro.)

8. A zéro (adv. exp.): Totally, completely. On était affranchis à zéro: We were fully genned-up. On s'est fait avoir à zéro! We were well and truly trounced!