con pies de plomo

Meaning: To proceed with extreme caution or wariness; to tread carefully in a delicate situation.

Language: Spanish

Literally: with feet of lead

Category: Body & Senses

Origin: Lead is heavy and dense; the image is of moving with such heaviness and deliberateness that each step is weighted and guarded.

More idioms — Body & Senses

con lo puesto — With nothing but the clothes on one's back; in a state of complete destitution.
die Nase voll haben — To be fed up or exhausted by something.
Salz in die Wunde streuen — To deliberately make someone's pain or humiliation worse.
vor den Kopf stoßen — To offend or affront someone.
den Geist aufgeben — to die, or to cease functioning.
um ein Haar — by the narrowest possible margin; almost not.

cuéntame una de vaqueros — A challenge to someone to stop lying or exaggerating; an equivalent of "pull the other on…
tomar el toro por los cuernos — To face a difficult problem directly and courageously rather than avoiding it.
cortar por lo sano — To sever a problem decisively rather than manage it halfway, making a clean break or radi…
caer en gracia — To charm someone instantly or be liked right away.
de tres al cuarto — Worthless, shoddy, or of poor quality.
venir mal dadas — For things to go wrong or turn out badly.

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