have pins and needles
Meaning: To feel a prickling, tingling sensation in a limb that has gone numb.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “I sat cross-legged through the whole movie and now I have pins and needles in my foot.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: It describes the prickling that comes as feeling returns to a numb limb, as if it were full of tiny pins. The expression is recorded from the early 19th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: avoir des fourmis — literally: to have ants
More idioms — Body & Senses
- have a big head — To be conceited; to think too highly of oneself.
- have itchy feet — To feel a restless urge to travel or move on.
- wait on someone hand and foot — To do everything for someone, attending to their every need.
- have a sharp tongue — To speak in a harsh, cutting way.
- cut one's teeth — To gain one's first experience of something.
- be scared stiff — To be so frightened that one cannot move.
More English idioms
- be on pins and needles — To be very anxious while waiting for something.
- make a killing — To make a lot of money quickly.
- worm something out of someone — To get information from someone gradually and persistently.
- lie low — To stay out of sight and avoid attention.
- eat one's words — To admit that something one said was wrong.
- get lucky — To succeed in having a sexual encounter.