no dejar títere con cabeza
Spanish
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Literally, “to not leave a puppet with a head”. The term alludes to a scene in Don Quixote (Volume 2 Chapter 26) in which in one of Don Quixote's daydreams he mistakes dolls for a maiden's real captors and thus cuts off all their heads.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): (Spain) /ˌno deˌxaɾ ˌtiteɾe kon kaˈbeθa/ [ˌno ð̞eˌxaɾ ˌt̪i.t̪e.ɾe kõŋ kaˈβ̞e.θa]
- IPA(key): (Latin America, Philippines) /ˌno deˌxaɾ ˌtiteɾe kon kaˈbesa/ [ˌno ð̞eˌxaɾ ˌt̪i.t̪e.ɾe kõŋ kaˈβ̞e.sa]
- Syllabification: no de‧jar tí‧te‧re con ca‧be‧za
Verb
[edit]no dejar títere con cabeza (first-person singular present no dejo títere con cabeza, first-person singular preterite no dejé títere con cabeza, past participle no dejado títere con cabeza)
- (idiomatic) to smash up everything in sight
- (idiomatic) to do away with everything
Further reading
[edit]- “no dejar títere con cabeza, o con cara”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10