excuse you
- idiom
- Informal
:
perdona
- "Excuse you," she said with a raised eyebrow after he commented on her outfit.
Examples
-
"Excuse you! That was really rude to interrupt me while I'm speaking!"
-
First of all, I mean, when Anderson Ford came in, excuse you, he came in and I was very, very professional.
-
First of all, I mean, when Anderson Ford came in, excuse you, he came in and I was very, very professional.
-
"Excuse you, but I don't appreciate that tone you used with me!"
Synonyms
159
1.0
A polite way to get someone's attention or say sorry for a small interruption
Antonyms
How Annoyed
- Informal
159
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
excuse + you
Literally 'excuse you' could be parsed as asking to forgive or pardon 'you', so the constituent meanings are related, but the actual use is sarcastic or reproachful rather than a straightforward request for pardon. The pragmatic, ironic force and the change in speaker attitude are not directly predictable from the words alone and require sociopragmatic knowledge, so it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Excuse you comes from the polite phrase 'excuse me', but used directly at someone it acts like a sharp order: 'you should excuse yourself'. That's why saying excuse you, with excuse put on you, is now a short, sarcastic way to show 'annoyance' or call out 'rude' behaviour.