One of my colleagues committed to complete a work by last week. Even after a week he didn’t complete his task.
Today when I asked him about the work status, he said he will do it by end of today. After that he asked this question:
“Do you by any chance have a needle nose pliers by where you sit?”
I didn’t understand instantly what he meant. I though he was asking for a needle nose plier device. I said,
“I don’t think so”
He replied:
“That’s cool Just Wondering”
I am a not a native English speaker. What does he mean when he said “needle nose where you sit”? Am I torturing him to get the work done ? Is that what he said ?
Or was he really asking for the tool?
Answer
My guess is OP’s colleague was making a clumsy attempt to be “witty” – he’s just not very good at it.
He probably referred to needle nose pliers because he was really thinking Quit needling me! (Stop pestering me). Perhaps influenced by You’re nit-picking! (obsessing over minor details), and Stop picking on me! (specifically attacking me rather than others), since needle nose pliers are often used to “pick” objects or material out of awkward locations.
There are other common idiomatic usages that may have influenced his (probably, “one-off”) usage, including have a bug up one’s ass / bee in one’s bonnet, be a pain in the ass, etc. Essentially, figurative references to irritating sharp pointy things, particularly around one’s posterior / seat.
The fact that he used such an obscure expression to a non-native speaker suggests to me OP’s colleague actually has quite limited interpersonal communicative skills. I certainly wouldn’t advise learners in general to take too much notice of how people like that [try to] express themselves.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : madhu_karnati , Answer Author : FumbleFingers
