Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Navid]

Hello Teachers,

Again new word - Please tell me what do you mean by "around" in the following sentense:

"Don't let her push your leg around".
Thanks in advance,
Navid

[bud]

Hi Navid,

"Around" really has no meaning by itself in that sentence. It is part of the phrasal verb "to push around." Cambridge Dictionaries defines it as "to tell someone what to do in a rude or threatening way." A similar phrase is "to give [somebody] a hard time." They both convey a manner of unwarranted agressiveness.

By the way, I think you might have confused two similar expressions. "To push somebody's leg around" is not an English expression. Here are the one's I think you have in mind:

To push somebody around - described in the first paragraph

To pull somebody's leg - "to try to persuade someone to believe something which is not true as a joke" (also from Cambridge)

So the first one decsribes antagonistic behavior, while the second is usually the behavior of a friend.

Hope that helps.

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=64392&dict=CALD (push)
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=45407&dict=CALD (pull)