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LadyLacrimosa
New Member
Spanish - Spain
- Apr 10, 2010
- #1
Hello! I need help to understand an expression I heard in a movie: "crawl from under rock" (in a figurative sense)
Context: There's two characters, one of them is a foreign doctor and the other one his patient. The patient used to be treated by another doctor, and is not happy with the change. After they discuss this, the patient says: "Ok, then it's over for today, and now you can go back to whatever rock you crawled from..."
Does he mean some random place nobody's ever heard of, because the doctor is a foreigner? Does he mean it as in "living under a rock", disconnected from the world? Or is it something else?
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Cagey
post mod (English Only / Latin)
California
English - US
- Apr 10, 2010
- #2
The idiom is discussed here: crawl under rock.
He is comparing the doctor to a bug; bugs live under rocks. I have no idea why he is doing this. Usually it means that the speaker dislikes the other person. Sometimes it means that the speaker thinks the other person doesn't know what is going on in the world because they "live under a rock".
SwissPete
Senior Member
94044 USA
Français (CH), AE (California)
- Apr 10, 2010
- #3
Living things you find under a rock are usually unsavory.
It is a very derogatory comment aimed at the doctor.
cuchuflete
Senior Member
Maine, EEUU
EEUU-inglés
- Apr 10, 2010
- #4
I disagree slightly with Cagey's good explanation. Rather than a bug (insect), I take it as a reference to a lizard or a slug. As Pete suggests, it's not normally something you want to embrace.
ewie
Senior Member
Manchester
English English
- Apr 10, 2010
- #5
cuchuflete said:
I take it as a reference to a lizard or a slug
I always think of woodlice
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LadyLacrimosa
New Member
Spanish - Spain
- Apr 10, 2010
- #6
Thanks a lot, guys
Would you then say that he says it more in a "you're an ugly animal" kind of way, rather than a reference to the fact that the doctor came out of nowhere?
(I have to translate it into my language, but I need to understand the meaning in English before I look for an equivalent).
ewie
Senior Member
Manchester
English English
- Apr 10, 2010
- #7
It seems to me that there's very possibly a hint of xenophobia involved, LadyL: Go back to whatever nasty country you come from.
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LadyLacrimosa
New Member
Spanish - Spain
- Apr 10, 2010
- #8
Yeah, I was thinking about that... Maybe, could it also be a hint to the fact that it's a new doctor for him? As in "I knew the other doctor, and suddenly you popped out of the blue"?
ewie
Senior Member
Manchester
English English
- Apr 10, 2010
- #9
I'd say it's a lot stronger than that, LadyL, a lot more insulting. It seems (to me, a polite chap, generally) a very rude thing to say to a professional person you've only just met.
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LadyLacrimosa
New Member
Spanish - Spain
- Apr 10, 2010
- #10
Ok, thanks a lot ewie
cuchuflete
Senior Member
Maine, EEUU
EEUU-inglés
- Apr 10, 2010
- #11
"...and now you can go back to whatever rock you crawled from..."
And now, you revolting, slimy creature, you may return to your usual hiding place.
C
Cagey
post mod (English Only / Latin)
California
English - US
- Apr 10, 2010
- #12
I think that what you think lives under a rock depends at least in part on what you found under rocks when you were a child. I always found bugs, some of which didn't bother me, some of which I found revolting and others that I believed would kill me if they stung me.
In any case, it is clearly very insulting.
What it means in this case depends on what the speaker objects to in the doctor. Does he resent something the doctor did or said earlier, or does his dislike seem purely arbitrary?
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LadyLacrimosa
New Member
Spanish - Spain
- Apr 10, 2010
- #13
He seems to be upset because he wants the other doctor back (the one who treated him before), and therefore objects to this new doctor automatically. Anyway, the character is a psycho. His hate can be quite arbitrary.
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