Buscarle las cosquillas
To look for someone's tickles.
to push someone's buttons; **to push someone's buttons**; **to push someone's patience**; **to provoke someone**; **to wind someone up** (British); **to get under someone's skin**; **to push someone's limits**; **to look for someone's weak spot**
Buscarle las cosquillas a alguien means to deliberately provoke someone, to annoy someone, to test someone's patience, or to look for their weak spot in order to make them react.
No le busques las cosquillas, que se va a enfadar.
Don't push his buttons; he's going to get angry.
Siempre está buscándole las cosquillas a su hermano.
He's always winding his brother up.
Le gusta buscarle las cosquillas al profesor con preguntas difíciles.
She likes to push the teacher's buttons with difficult questions.
No me busques las cosquillas porque sabes que tengo poca paciencia.
Don't push me because you know I don't have much patience.
El periodista intentó buscarle las cosquillas al político.
The journalist tried to put the politician on the spot.
It can also mean to look for a way to create problems or difficulties for someone.
A common construction is:
Buscarle las cosquillas a alguien.
→ To deliberately provoke someone / to push someone's buttons.
- deliberately annoys another person
- provokes someone to get a reaction
- keeps insisting on a sensitive subject
- tests someone's patience
- deliberately looks for another person's weaknesses
- tries to create problems for someone
The expression is based on the literal act of tickling someone.
Tickling is an effective way of provoking an involuntary reaction. Someone who deliberately looks for another person's ticklish spots is therefore trying to make that person react.
This physical image became a metaphor for deliberately finding someone's sensitive points and provoking them.
The expression does not always imply hostility.
It can describe playful teasing:
A los hermanos les encanta buscarse las cosquillas.
→ The brothers love winding each other up.
But it can also describe deliberate provocation:
No le busques las cosquillas al jefe.
→ Don't push the boss's buttons.
The context determines whether the behaviour is playful or confrontational.
The expression has a particularly interesting semantic relationship with tocar las narices:
- Buscarle las cosquillas → deliberately find someone's sensitive point and provoke them.
- Tocar las narices → annoy or bother someone.
- Tocar la fibra sensible → touch an emotionally sensitive subject.
All three expressions use a physical sensation as a metaphor for psychological reaction.
The expression normally takes an indirect object:
buscarle las cosquillas a alguien
The le refers to the person being provoked:
Le busqué las cosquillas.
→ I deliberately provoked him/her.
Do not translate cosquillas literally in the figurative meaning.
Natural English equivalents include:
to push someone's buttons
to wind someone up
to get under someone's skin
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