I don’t know about you, but mi da veramente sui nervi (it really gets on my nerves) when people try to push their luck with me. There is something especially irritating about someone who decides to test my patience, even though I’ve already said no, or made it abundantly clear that they’re taking things too far. This is exactly the idea behind today’s Italian idiom tirare la corda.
tirare la corda
to push it / to take things too far
The word-for-word translation for tirare la corda is to pull the rope, and just in case you were wondering, it can be used quite literally to describe this act.
Ha tirato la corda così forte che si è spezzata in due.
He pulled the rope so hard that it snapped in two.
But, as an idiom, it means to push someone’s patience too far, to take advantage of someone’s goodwill, or to keep testing the limits of a situation. It is quite similar to all the English expressions listed below:
- to push your luck
- to push someone too far
- to take things too far
- to stretch someone’s patience
Imagine that someone keeps asking you for favours. You help them once, then twice, and perhaps even a third time. Eventually, they ask for something unreasonable. You might say:
Dai, non tirare troppo la corda.
Come on, don’t push me too far.
The imagery associated with this idiom is pretty self-explanatory: if you keep pulling a rope, eventually it is going to reach its limit. You might be able to pull it gently several times, but if you continue putting pressure on it, it will eventually start to fray and snap.
Tirare la corda can be used in a wide variety of everyday situations. Someone might use it when a friend repeatedly arrives late despite being warned, or when someone keeps asking for favours while never returning them. In every case, it implies that the person in question is getting dangerously close to crossing a boundary.
Ha tirato troppo la corda e alla fine il suo capo si è arrabbiato.
He pushed his luck too far and eventually his boss got angry.
Puoi chiedermi un favore, ma non tirare troppo la corda.
You can ask me for a favour, but don’t push your luck.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with asking for the odd favour, but it is also essential to recognise when you’re about to cross that invisible boundary with someone, and stop “pulling the rope” before it snaps!
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
