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I'm Belgian (Flemish) and over there we have an expression: "met iemands voeten spelen". Google translates it as I would: "Playing with one's feet". Googling around for a minute or so does not give me any results. So I was wondering. Do native English people understand what it means?

In Flemish it means something like: to tease, to joke around, to fool around... not sure if those are correct English.

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2 Answers

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In English, "playing with one's feet" would be interpreted a meaning literally that; that someone is moving their own feet around in an agitated or fidgety way. It doesn't have any idiomatic meaning relating to fooling around.

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I guess this is the correct answer.. It is usable, but only if for some reason you mean it literally :) – TweeZz Oct 6 '11 at 9:27
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As a native English (American) speaker I have never heard the phrase used with those meanings. However, to tease, joke around and fool around are all perfectly fine.

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I did some more research and I think I might have found the appropriate expression :) "to pull someone's leg".. Could this be correct? – TweeZz Oct 6 '11 at 8:41
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Yes! To pull someone's leg means to tell them something that's exaggerated or not really true in order to trick them in a fun, playful way. It's often an ongoing trick, like letting someone believe something about you for a long time, only to reveal to them later that it was just a joke. – Mark Oct 6 '11 at 8:50

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