EVERYDAY LANGUAGE - IT’S ALL ABOUT HANDS

To bite the hand that feeds you.

To be ungrateful to someone.

To get your hands dirty.

To engage in an unpleasant job. In Italian ‘sporcarsi le mani’.

To work hand in glove.

To work with someone intimately.

To have your hands full.

To be very busy.

Living from hand to mouth.

To be very poor.

‘All hands on deck’.

In the nautical language, it’s a command that requires for every sailor to be on duty. In a more common language it means that everyone involved needs to help.

To be a dab hand.

To be an expert in something.

A mani basse.

Easily as, for example, in ‘to win hands down’.

Giochi di mano, giochi di villano.

Hand games are villain’s games. It means that an educated person would never have heavy-handed manners.

 Avere le mani in pasta.

To be involved in something, to be an expert in something. In English, to have a finger in the pie.

Essere alla mano.

To be down to earth, to be approachable.

 Avere le mani bucate.

Literally, to have holes in one’s hands. It means to be prone to spending money easily.

Fare la mano morta.

To try to sneak sexual touching while the other person is unaware. To be a groper.