Sacar de quicio
To take out of its door hinge.
to drive someone crazy; **to drive someone crazy**; **to drive someone up the wall**; **to get on someone's nerves**; **to exasperate someone**; **to drive someone mad**
Sacar de quicio means to irritate, exasperate or drive someone to the point where they lose their patience.
Me saca de quicio el ruido.
That noise drives me crazy.
Su actitud acaba sacándome de quicio.
His attitude really gets on my nerves.
Los retrasos constantes sacaron de quicio a todo el equipo.
The constant delays drove the whole team up the wall.
The expression describes a gradual build-up of annoyance rather than a sudden burst of anger.
A noisy neighbour may sacar de quicio the people living nearby.
Constant interruptions during a meeting may sacar de quicio everyone in the room.
Children sometimes sacan de quicio their parents after repeatedly ignoring instructions.
The idiom focuses on the emotional effect produced by the irritating behaviour.
- becomes unbearably annoying
- tests another person's patience
- repeatedly causes frustration
- provokes exasperation
- eventually leads someone to lose their temper
The expression comes directly from architecture.
A quicio is the hinge or pivot that allows a door to open and close correctly.
Removing a door from its hinges leaves it unstable and useless.
Spanish extended this image to people.
Someone who is sacado de quicio has been emotionally pushed out of their normal balance.
The metaphor has survived for centuries, even though many speakers no longer know the original meaning of quicio.
One reason this idiom has remained so popular is that it sounds expressive without being vulgar.
A person can complain about work, traffic or family problems by saying:
Me saca de quicio.
without sounding aggressive.
For that reason, it appears frequently in television interviews, newspapers and everyday conversation throughout the Spanish-speaking world.
The word quicio survives almost exclusively inside this idiom.
Many native Spanish speakers use sacar de quicio every week without ever realising that quicio originally referred to a door hinge.
This makes the expression a fascinating example of how old vocabulary can remain alive for centuries through idioms, even after disappearing from everyday language.
Do not attempt to translate the idiom literally.
English speakers would not understand "to take someone out of their hinges."
Instead, choose the equivalent that best reflects the level of annoyance.
To drive someone crazy is usually the safest choice.
If the emphasis is on irritation rather than anger, to get on someone's nerves often sounds more natural.
Remember that the Spanish idiom usually describes the cause of the frustration.
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