I'll dust the hide off you

[AlexAD]

Hello.

I have no intention to frighten you ;-)
I just would like to ask you whether that would sound archaic this day and age, if I said that to a friend of mine

Thanks, Alex.

 

[5jj]

Re: I'll dust the hide of you

It sounds rather old-fashioned to me. I don't know how others think.

 

[Barb_D]

Re: I'll dust the hide of you

Absurdly old-fashioned.

Did you mean "off" you?

 

[AlexAD]

Re: I'll dust the hide of you

Hello.

There is an excercise to paraphrase the sentence I got stuck with.
Cannot think of anything other than 'I'll kill you'.
In Russian we have something like this, "I'll make dust from you" (I am not sure if I translated that right).

Could you please help me with that?

Thanks, Alex.

 

[birdeen's call]

Re: I'll dust the hide of you

Is this really an expression? I've never heard or seen it and here's what google gives: http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF...gc.r_pw.&fp=c76bb526256213d5&biw=1680&bih=831http://www.google.com/search?q=dust...gc.r_pw.&fp=c76bb526256213d5&biw=1680&bih=831

 

[Barb_D]

Does it really mean to "kill" or could it mean to injure? Is it meant to be truly threatening, or a bit funny?

If you have freedom to translate, "I'll make you regret the day you were born" might work.

 

[AlexAD]

BarbD, I think it depends. For me, that is more like to be injured rather than killed. But given that rough times, they might have struggled to death.

 

[Mannysteps]

Not a teacher

Maybe these considerations will help:

How do you "dust a carpet"? There being no vaccum cleaner available, you beat it with a stick. Like I do. For this reason in some languages the idea of "dusting someone" means "beating someone" as as in "quitarte el polvo". Now if you replace "carpet" by "hide" (thick skin) "I'll dust the hide off you" could mean something like "I'll beat you to death" or "I'll skin you alive".

Just food for thougth, yet again.

M.

 

[Raymott]

"I'll thrash the hide off you" is more common, in Western movies.
It usually means a good beating, not killing someone. Of course, accidents happened in the wild west.

 

[allenman]

Here in Texas, we would say "I'll dust your hide, boy..." with an emphasis on "boy" -- but a lot of people that did not grow here in Texas do not know this expression.

I have never heard the expression *exactly* as you wrote it.

Not a teacher -- AmE native