Tocarse las narices
To touch one's nose.
tocar las narices; **to annoy someone**; **to get on someone's nerves**; **to bug someone**; **to piss someone off** (stronger); **to sit around doing nothing**; **to sit on one's hands**; **to do nothing**; **to idle around**
Tocarse las narices has two related meanings:
No me toques las narices.
Don't get on my nerves.
Ese ruido me está tocando las narices.
That noise is really annoying me.
Siempre está tocando las narices a los demás.
He's always annoying everyone.
Mientras nosotros trabajábamos, él se tocaba las narices.
While we were working, he was sitting around doing nothing.
Llevas toda la mañana tocándote las narices.
You've been sitting around doing nothing all morning.
- To annoy or bother someone, especially in the expression tocar las narices.
- To do nothing / sit around doing nothing, especially in the reflexive construction tocarse las narices.
The meaning therefore depends strongly on the construction and context.
The expression uses narices ("noses") as a humorous euphemism.
In Spanish, narices is frequently used in colloquial expressions to avoid a more vulgar or direct word, particularly when expressing annoyance or irritation.
The literal action of touching or fiddling with one's nose was then associated with doing nothing useful, while tocar las narices a alguien developed the sense of annoying or bothering someone.
It is important to distinguish:
Tocar las narices a alguien
from:
Tocarse las narices
The first normally means to annoy someone.
The second can mean to do nothing.
Compare:
No me toques las narices.
→ Don't annoy me.
with:
Se pasó toda la tarde tocándose las narices.
→ He spent the whole afternoon doing nothing.
Spanish has a large family of euphemistic expressions for annoying someone:
- Tocar las narices → to annoy.
- Tocar los cojones → to seriously annoy (vulgar).
- Tocar las pelotas → to annoy (colloquial/vulgar).
- Dar por saco → to annoy or bother.
- Dar la lata → to pester or annoy.
- Dar la tabarra → to pester someone repeatedly.
Among these, tocar las narices is relatively mild and is often used even in situations where the speaker wants to express irritation without resorting to vulgar language.
Do not automatically translate:
Tocarse las narices.
as:
to touch one's nose.
The idiomatic meaning depends on context.
For example:
¡No me toques las narices!
→ Don't get on my nerves!
Whereas:
Está tocándose las narices.
→ He's sitting around doing nothing.
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