Tocar las narices

to get on someone's nerves; **to get on someone's nerves**; **to annoy someone**; **to wind someone up**; **to bother someone**; **to be a pain**

Tocar las narices means to annoy someone, to get on someone's nerves, to bother someone, to wind someone up, or to deliberately provoke someone.

It is one of several euphemistic alternatives to stronger vulgar expressions such as tocar los cojones.

• keeps irritating another person
• behaves provocatively
• deliberately causes annoyance
• repeatedly interrupts
• refuses to stop doing something irritating

It works by plain analogy with a scene anyone can picture.

The nose has traditionally been regarded as a particularly sensitive part of the face.

Touching someone else's nose without permission would naturally be irritating.

The expression later became a euphemistic substitute for stronger idioms referring to other body parts, allowing speakers to express annoyance in a less vulgar way.

The expression is widely accepted in everyday speech.

Although informal, it is considerably milder than several synonymous expressions involving vulgar anatomy.

For this reason, it is often heard in family conversations, television programmes and informal workplace settings.

Spanish has a whole family of expressions meaning to annoy:

• Tocar las narices → to get on someone's nerves.
• Dar por saco → to be a pain.
• Dar la lata → to pester someone.
• Dar la tabarra → to nag or hassle someone.
• Sacar de quicio → to drive someone up the wall.

Among them, tocar las narices occupies a middle ground: it is clearly informal but noticeably less vulgar than some of its stronger equivalents, making it one of the safest idioms to use in everyday conversation.

Do not translate the expression literally.

English speakers would never say:

He's touching my nose.

Instead, use expressions such as:

• He's getting on my nerves.
• She's annoying me.
• He's winding me up.
• Stop bothering me.

Choose the translation according to the level of irritation and the context.