show ankle
To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or…To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest.
» Show me your ankle.
mailohilohi · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(idiomatic)To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest.
Examples
3 sentencesShow me your ankle.
Show me your ankles.
She showed him her ankle.
ruОна показала ему свою лодыжку. — odexed
deSie zeigte ihm ihr Fußgelenk. — Pfirsichbaeumchen
Origin
Probably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the fiProbably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, of raising a long skirt sufficiently to reveal a bare ankle but no more than that.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
shows ankle, showing ankle, showed ankle, shown ankle| Base form | show ankle · to show ankle |
|---|---|
| 3rd person singular | shows ankle |
| Present participle | showing ankle |
| Past simple | showed ankle |
| Past participle | shown ankle |
irregular
Word family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.