watch one's step
Meaning: To be careful how one behaves, to avoid trouble.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Example: “After one more late arrival, the manager told him he'd better watch his step.”
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The literal warning to mind where you put your feet took on its figurative sense of behaving carefully in the early 20th century.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: n’avoir qu’à bien se tenir — literally: to have only to hold oneself well
More idioms — Daily Life
- mend fences — To repair a damaged relationship after a disagreement.
- play one's last card — To make a final attempt, using the last resource one has.
- people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones — One should not criticize others for faults one has oneself.
- take potshots at — To criticize someone in a casual, unfair or opportunistic way.
- go underground — To go into hiding or begin operating in secret.
- the knives are out — People are openly hostile and ready to attack someone, usually to bring them down.
More English idioms
- have a lot on one's plate — To have many tasks or problems to deal with.
- not believe one's ears — To be so surprised by what one hears that it seems impossible.
- cross the Rubicon — To take an irreversible step.
- like a bear with a sore head — In a very bad, irritable mood.
- dead on one's feet — To be utterly exhausted.
- lay it on with a trowel — To flatter or exaggerate very heavily and without subtlety.