German - English
Definition of feste redewendung in German English dictionary
- set phrase
- A common expression whose words cannot be replaced by synonymous words without compromising the meaning
If it proves clearly unfeasible to make the audience laugh at a thin and far-fetched joke, it is always better to change the way the joke works . . . for instance, a pun based on the speaker's taking literally some set phrase or metaphor with a pun based on phonetic similarity.
- A common expression whose wording is not subject to variation
Bally remarks in passing, as Hall does not, that the inversion in toujours est-il que is part of a set phrase and hence invariable.