to feel someone's collar
- idiom
:
detener a alguien
- To stop the suspect, the detective quickly felt his collar and placed him under arrest.
Examples
-
During the struggle, the security guard managed to feel the collar of the thief before he could run away.
-
It's enough evidence to feel his collar but not enough to choke him with it.
-
The police officer had to feel someone's collar to prevent him from escaping.
Synonyms
∞
3.4
To detain someone and take them to the police station
110
3.6
To put metal rings that lock around someone's wrists to stop them moving
81
7.2
To put metal bands around someone's wrists to stop their hands from moving
35
6.2
To restrain someone with chains or limit their freedom
6
6.1
To grab someone by the neck or shirt to stop them
Antonyms
How Forceful
∞
2.7
884
2.8
277
3.2
∞
1.0
17
2.9
5
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The wording evokes the literal action of touching or grabbing someone's collar, so a learner who knows 'feel' and 'collar' can infer a physical restraint meaning. However, the specific idiomatic extension to 'apprehend/arrest' (and the use of 'collar' in the sense of seizing someone) is not fully predictable without exposure, making the expression only partially transparent.
Etymology
Feel someone's collar comes from the simple image of a guard or officer grabbing a person's collar to stop them. Because officers would literally feel and hold the collar, the phrase came to mean 'to arrest' or 'to detain' someone.