/tiˈrare le ˈkwɔja/ lit. ‘pull the hides’
Italian idiom, colloquial. To die (said in a casual, joking way).
Draft Not yet checked by a native Italian speaker.
How do people use Tirare le cuoia
?
Colloquial and jokey, a bit like “kick the bucket”: fine about a villain, an old car or yourself, rude about a real person someone is grieving. Conjugate tirare and keep the hides: “ha tirato le cuoia”, “sta tirando le cuoia”. It works for machines too, as in “il mio computer sta tirando le cuoia”.
Also said stendere le cuoia
Tirare le cuoia
in real sentences
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Tom ha tirato le cuoia.
Tom has kicked the bucket.
Tatoeba, sentence by Blueblaze, translation by CK, CC BY 2.0 FR
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La vecchia macchina di Tom finalmente ha tirato le cuoia.
Tom’s old car has finally given up the ghost.
Tatoeba, sentence by dnnywld, translation by Hybrid, CC BY 2.0 FR
Where does Tirare le cuoia
come from?
Cuoio means leather, and the Treccani dictionary says it’s used jokingly for human skin, listing “tirare o stendere le cuoia” and “lasciarci le cuoia” as ways to say to die. English Wiktionary adds that the feminine plural cuoia is archaic and survives mainly in this phrase. Why you’d pull or stretch your hide is unclear: a common explanation is the body stiffening after death, but we found no dictionary that backs it up.
Mistakes learners make with Tirare le cuoia
Using the modern plural. The leather word cuoio normally makes “cuoi”, but this phrase keeps the old feminine plural “cuoia”, so “tirare i cuoi” is wrong. And it’s far too flippant for condolences: use “è morto” or “è venuto a mancare” there.
Other Italian idioms like Tirare le cuoia
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