step on someone's toes

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

step on someone's toes (third-person singular simple present steps on someone's toes, present participle stepping on someone's toes, simple past and past participle stepped on someone's toes)

1. (idiomatic) To cause someone offense, especially by trying to control something that is under their authority, or interfering in their private affairs.

   Synonym: tread on someone's toes

   I didn't think I'd be stepping on my sister's toes when I told my nephew to sit up straight at the dinner table.

Translations

Translations

• Finnish: astua jonkun varpaille
• French: marcher sur les pieds (fr), marcher sur les plates-bandes (fr) (literally “to walk on the flower beds”)
• German: auf die Füße treten
• Italian: pestare i piedi
• Latvian: uzmīt kādam uz varžacīm
• Portuguese: pisar nos calos de alguém (literally “step on someone's calluses”)
• Spanish: pisar el pie a alguien