sweep someone off their feet
Meaning: To overwhelm someone, often causing him or her to fall in love.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “He swept her off her feet with poems and surprise picnics.”
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: American, from around 1900, part of a small family of related phrases — "carry off one's feet" from the mid-1800s, "knock off one's feet" from the early 1900s — all built on the same idea of a sudden, overwhelming impression forceful enough to be described as physically unbalancing. "Sweep" specifically may owe something to ballroom dancing, popular in exactly this period, where a confident, skilled partner really could seem to lift and carry someone through a waltz or tango with no effort of their own. Applied to romance, the phrase captures a very particular kind of infatuation: one that arrives suddenly and leaves a person feeling like they had no say in the matter.
More idioms — Body & Senses
- talk someone's ear off — To bore someone with one's unending talk.
- toe the line — To follow the rules; to do what is expected of one.
- tongue-in-cheek — Joking or sarcastic.
- turn a deaf ear — To ignore someone.
- turn the other cheek — Not to retaliate; not to pay back bad behavior with more bad behavior.
- turn up one's nose at something or someone — To scorn, snub, or reject something.
More English idioms
- under someone's thumb — Under someone's control.
- with bated breath — Hardly breathing at all because of fear, excitement, or other strong emotion.
- when hell freezes over — Never.
- beat the bushes — To search exhaustively.
- between the devil and the deep blue sea — Facing two difficult outcomes for the same situation.
- down to earth — Practical and rational; unpretentious.
From our compliments & insults
- Griesgram — A perpetual grump who radiates dissatisfaction and sucks the joy out of every room.
- Pantoffelheld — A man who is only bold and brave at home — a henpecked pushover who bluster turns into a…
- Schlauberger — A know-it-all smartass who never misses a chance to show off their cleverness.