Englishgive someone a hard time
Meaning: To be difficult with someone; to give someone unnecessary difficulty.
Example: “The customs officer gave us a hard time about our luggage.”
Equivalents in other languages
French: Tailler des croupières à quelqu'un Literally: To cut someone's crupper straps
Origin: Builds on the plain, long-established use of "hard" for anything difficult or demanding, extended here into a social act rather than a simple description — "giving" someone a hard time turns difficulty into something actively done to a person rather than a condition they merely happen to be in. The idiom is documented from at least the early 1900s, and one proposed influence points to American soldiers in the Second World War, whose blunt battlefield language for making an opponent's life miserable — "giving him hell," "making it tough" — may have fed into the calmer civilian version once it settled into everyday speech, used equally for genuine harassment and for good-natured teasing.
More English idioms
- give someone a song and dance To give someone an overly dramatic or unbelievable excuse.
- go around in circles To be confused or lost; to make no progress.
- go bananas To go crazy; to no longer be able to cope with a situation. To drive someone bananas mean…
- go for broke To risk everything.
- go haywire To malfunction; to break down.
- go off half-cocked To do or say something in haste or without adequate planning or preparation.
Explore another collection: False Friends
Words that look familiar in another language but mean something else entirely.
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