Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Italian idiom: Rompere le scatole (to annoy/upset someone)


When my youngest son is tired or bored, he will circle around me repeating the word endlessly Mother, trying to get my attention. When repeated a hundred times, I sometimes can’t help but think, “But stop bothering me!

disturb In short, it’s an idiomatic way of saying to irritatemeaning is”to irritate” or”overwhelm someone“.

disturb

annoy/upset someone


disturb

idioms are made of verbs rest (break in) and plural feminine nouns those boxes (those boxes), so the literal translation is “break the box“.

This phrase dates back to the days of the Great War.In that era, soldiers were instructed to open the cardboard can Store ammo supplies before launching an attack. The act of initiating an offense carries an imminent risk of death, exacerbating the “disturb“. (source: TGCom24)

In modern times, the phrase has shed its association with death, but still retains a negative connotation.

The paparazzi annoyed the actors by mercilessly photographing them.

The actors were distraught by paparazzi mercilessly taking pictures of the actors.


Cute boy annoys his brother with a pillow
My little brother pissed me off! = My little brother pissed me off!

In English, “to annoy” takes the direct object, while in Italian “to annoy” is followed by a preposition A (to) thus requires an indirect object pronoun: disturb A someone.

luka broke the box his. > luca this break the box.

Luca pissed him off.

i break the box and. > Io of I break the box.

i’m annoying you.

A related noun is butt painthe word used to describe a nasty person.

Of course, there is a rougher translation of this idiom, which is replaced by can and somewhat vulgar tray (ball) and very vulgar ball (testis).



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