verb/ti.ʁe lə dja.blə paʁ la kø/
to scrape by, to live from hand to mouth, to feel the pinch, to have trouble to make ends meet, not to have enough to live
Attested in Dictionnaire de l'Académie française (1694), p. 326, as tirer le diable par la queuë. Literally, “to pull the devil by the tail”.