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Glite Dictionary
to see one's etchings

to see one's etchings

9.9
Invite someone to your home pretending to show art but actually to try to have sex
  • idiom
  • NSFW
translation icon : ver mis grabados
  • He asked if I wanted to see his etchings, but I knew what he really meant.

Examples

  • She invited him over to see her etchings.

  • The phrase 'would you like to see my etchings?' became a classic humorous innuendo.

  • She laughed when I suggested we see my etchings after dinner.

  • Would you like to see my etchings?

  • He invited her to his apartment to see his etchings, but she could tell he had other intentions.

  • After dinner, he jokingly suggested they see my etchings, hinting at something more personal.

  • When she said, 'Would you like to see my etchings?', everyone knew she meant a romantic rendezvous.

Synonyms

to show her his etchings
vsto see one's etchings
  • NSFW
9.9

Ask a woman to look at your art as a joke that suggests romantic or sexual interest

is neutral about the invitee's gender rather than targeting a woman

Antonyms

to reject
839 1.9

Refuse to accept someone or something

to turn away
77 2.8

Refuse someone entry to a place or group

Surface Forms

see one's etchings infinitive
seeing one's etchings present participle
sees one's etchings third person singular
saw one's etchings past
seen one's etchings past participle

Morphology

see + one + etching

The literal composition 'see one's etchings' would normally be understood as visiting someone to view artwork, and the constituent meanings ('see', 'one's', 'etching') give no indication of a sexual or euphemistic intent. The humorous/euphemistic sexual meaning relies on pragmatic and cultural inference rather than compositional semantics, so a B1 learner who knows the words but hasn't encountered the idiom would not predict its intended sense.

Etymology

See one's etchings comes from a polite old joke: someone would ask to see their etchings, small printed pictures, as a reason to invite a person home. Because the real aim was often a private romantic meeting, the phrase became a funny way to mean 'invite someone with sexual intent'.